---
title: "Checklist for changing Amazon agency smoothly"
canonical_url: "https://flapen.com/blog/checklist-for-changing-amazon-agency-smoothly"
last_updated: "2026-09-04T16:33:55Z"
locale: en
meta:
  description: "Export campaigns and negatives, gather layered creative files, list open cases, and confirm you hold Seller Central before notice, then overlap two weeks."
  "og:description": "Export campaigns and negatives, gather layered creative files, list open cases, and confirm you hold Seller Central before notice, then overlap two weeks."
  "og:title": "Checklist for changing Amazon agency smoothly"
---

``

# **Checklist for changing Amazon agency smoothly**

Export campaigns and negatives, gather layered creative files, list open cases, and confirm you hold Seller Central before notice, then overlap two weeks.

September 4, 2026·5 min read

Seller AccountBrand RegistryPPCAmazon FBA

![Joel Turcotte Gaucher](https://flapen.com/_vercel/image?url=%2Fimages%2Fteam%2Fjoel-turcotte-gaucher-avatar.webp&w=64&q=100)

**Joel Turcotte Gaucher**

Founder

![Flapen cover for Checklist for changing Amazon agency smoothly: a Flapen operator walking a client through product samples at a factory table](https://flapen.com/_vercel/image?url=%2Fimages%2Fblog%2Fclusters%2Fhiring-an-agency-02.jpg&w=1536&q=100) Collect everything before you give notice. Export campaign structure and negative keyword lists, gather creative source files, list open cases, and confirm you hold Seller Central. Then overlap the two agencies by two weeks. Giving notice first and collecting afterwards is how sellers lose a quarter. ## The short version - **Collect before you give notice.** Cooperation is highest while the relationship is intact. - **Confirm you own the Seller Central account** and can revoke access yourself. - **Export campaign history and negative keyword lists.** They do not transfer automatically. - **Ask for creative source files,** layered, not flattened exports. - **Overlap by two weeks** rather than switching on a single day. ## The checklist, in order I run Flapen with 50 operators managing about 70 brands, and I ran this process from the client side at BRANDED and Moonshot Brands. The order matters more than the contents. | Phase | Step | Why now |
| --- | --- | --- | | Before notice | Confirm account ownership and your admin access | If this is wrong, everything else waits | | Before notice | Export campaign structure, bids, negative keyword lists | Highest cooperation, no awkwardness | | Before notice | Request creative source files | Slow to produce, ask early | | Before notice | List open Amazon cases with case numbers | Cases in flight get orphaned | | Before notice | Screenshot current rankings and Buy Box position | Your baseline for judging the new team | | Before notice | Record inventory position and pending shipments | Stockouts during transition cost ranking | | Give notice | In writing, per the contract | Starts the clock cleanly | | Notice period | Overlap the new agency for two weeks | Knowledge transfer with both present | | Notice period | Request written handover documentation | What is running and why | | Day 1 new | Grant new user permissions, revoke old | Never share credentials | | Week 1 new | Freeze major campaign changes | Establish a baseline first | | Week 2 new | New audit, priority plan, approve it | Start from diagnosis, not activity | ### Why collect before giving notice Nothing here is hostile. A team that has been told the relationship is ending has less time and less reason to chase down a two-year-old source file. None of these requests are unusual during a live engagement. Asking for creative source files or a campaign export in a normal month is routine. Asking in week one of a notice period is a project. ### The account ownership check Do this first because it determines whether the rest is a transition or a rescue. Log in yourself. Open user permissions. Confirm you can remove every agency user without help from anyone. If the agency created your Seller Central account or holds the primary credentials, resolving that comes before any switching conversation. ### Campaign history The asset sellers most reliably forget. It is months of learning about which keywords convert for your product at which bid, funded entirely by your ad budget. Rebuilding it means paying for the same education twice. Export campaign structure, current bids, and negative keyword lists with whatever reasoning exists. Then ask where campaigns physically live. If they were built inside the agency's own tooling or account structure, the history may not transfer cleanly even with everyone cooperating. ### The two-week overlap Worth the double fee. The outgoing team is still available to answer questions while the incoming team is reading the account, and questions surface during handover that nobody thought to document. If your contract has 30 days' notice, the overlap fits inside it. Ours is 30 days, and we hand over cleanly with documentation of what is running and why, because clients keep the account, the campaigns, and the creative on exit. ## What to freeze during the transition 1. **Major campaign restructures.** Let the new team establish a baseline first. 2. **Price changes,** unless competitively forced. Too many variables at once. 3. **New product launches.** Wait until the account is stable. 4. **Listing rewrites,** until after the new audit. 5. **Inventory reorders,** unless timing requires it. Confirm the position first. The temptation is to let the new agency start changing things immediately to justify the switch. Resist it for two weeks. If everything changes at once, nobody can attribute what worked. ## What most agencies will not tell you The outgoing agency will not tell you which of your assets are inconveniently located until you ask, because until you ask it is not a problem. The incoming agency will not tell you to slow down, because early activity looks like value. But a new team that restructures campaigns in week one has destroyed the baseline against which their own work would be judged. The most useful thing you can do is unglamorous: get a written diagnosis from the new agency before they change anything, and keep the screenshots of where you started. Two weeks of patience buys you the ability to know, three months later, whether switching actually worked. ## Related answers - [Amazon agency transition timeline and risks](https://flapen.com/blog/amazon-agency-transition-timeline-and-risks) - [How to migrate campaigns between Amazon agencies](https://flapen.com/blog/how-to-migrate-campaigns-between-amazon-agencies) - [How to handle Brand Registry and catalog during switch](https://flapen.com/blog/how-to-handle-brand-registry-and-catalog-during-switch) - [When to switch Amazon agency](https://flapen.com/blog/when-to-switch-amazon-agency) - [Hiring an Amazon agency: the complete guide](https://flapen.com/blog/hiring-an-agency) We hand over cleanly because the assets were always yours. Terms at [Flapen](https://flapen.com/amazon-consulting). ## Keep learning - [Compare Amazon business models](https://flapen.com/guides/business-models) - [Value your Amazon business](https://flapen.com/tools/business-value-calculator) ## **Frequently Asked Questions**Why collect assets before giving notice?Is a two-week overlap worth paying twice for?What should stay frozen during the switch?What if the outgoing agency is uncooperative? ## About the Author![Joel Turcotte Gaucher](https://flapen.com/_vercel/image?url=%2Fimages%2Fteam%2Fjoel-turcotte-gaucher-avatar.webp&w=64&q=100) [**Joel Turcotte Gaucher**](https://flapen.com/blog/author/joel-turcotte-gaucher) Founder & CEO at Flapen Joel has spent 10 years in Amazon and ecommerce, running data and technology at BRANDED and Moonshot Brands, two of the largest Amazon aggregators, where he audited and scaled 60+ acquired brands. He co-founded Flapen to give sellers the data-driven tools and insights they need to compete. His expertise spans product research, listing optimization, PPC advertising, and international expansion. [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-turcotte/) [X](https://x.com/JoelTGaucher) [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@JoelTGaucher) [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/JoelTGaucher) [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/joeltgaucher) [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/user/JoelTGaucher/) [More in Working with Agencies ](https://flapen.com/blog/category/working-with-agencies) [**Amazon brand management tiers: the complete guide**Sep 4, 2026](https://flapen.com/blog/brand-tiers) [**Done-for-you Amazon management: the complete guide**Sep 4, 2026](https://flapen.com/blog/done-for-you-management) [**Build vs buy for your Amazon channel: the complete guide**Sep 4, 2026](https://flapen.com/blog/build-vs-buy) [Latest ](https://flapen.com/blog) [**Amazon brand management tiers: the complete guide**Sep 4, 2026](https://flapen.com/blog/brand-tiers) [**Amazon marketplaces by geography: the complete guide**Sep 4, 2026](https://flapen.com/blog/geography-and-marketplaces) [**Amazon account measurement and audits: the complete guide**Sep 4, 2026](https://flapen.com/blog/measurement-and-audit)![The Flapen Weekly Product Research report, an Amazon niche shortlist scored 0–100 with its score radar on the cover](https://flapen.com/_vercel/image?url=%2Fimages%2Fhomepage%2Famazon-product-research-report-dark.webp&w=640&q=100) The weekly niche report ## Product research, in your inbox Every niche that cleared the bar this week: what it sells for, what it costs to enter, and why it passed. When we get one wrong, we publish the correction.**First name****Last name****Email****Get product research**