[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-en-red-flags-when-choosing-an-amazon-marketing-partner":3,"blog-related-category-en-red-flags-when-choosing-an-amazon-marketing-partner":50,"blog-related-latest-en-red-flags-when-choosing-an-amazon-marketing-partner":63,"blog-translations-red-flags-when-choosing-an-amazon-marketing-partner":73},{"id":4,"type":5,"locale":6,"slug":7,"title":8,"description":9,"body":10,"status":11,"section":12,"tags":13,"author":18,"cover_url":19,"published_at":20,"metadata":21,"template":5,"sort_order":45,"source_id":46,"search_vector":47,"created_at":48,"updated_at":49},"0e3ab04f-ee07-47e2-9351-59e38f4454d2","blog","en","red-flags-when-choosing-an-amazon-marketing-partner","Red flags when choosing an Amazon marketing partner","Five flags end the conversation, a guarantee before an audit, a quote before analysis, percentage-of-spend pricing, no caseload number, and a login request.","Five disqualify a candidate outright: a guaranteed result before any audit, a quote before any market analysis, percentage-of-ad-spend pricing, refusing to state accounts per person, and a contract requiring your login rather than user permissions. Any one of those is enough to stop the conversation.\n\n## The short version\n\n- **Guaranteed results before an audit** means the number was invented.\n- **A quote before analysis** means they are selling hours.\n- **Percentage of ad spend** pays them to grow your budget.\n- **No caseload number** is itself the caseload number.\n- **A login request** creates account linkage risk and is never necessary.\n\n## The five disqualifiers\n\nI run Flapen with 50 operators managing about 70 brands, and I hired agencies at BRANDED and Moonshot Brands before that. These five end the conversation.\n\n| # | Red flag | Why it disqualifies |\n|---|---|---|\n| 1 | Guaranteed ACoS or revenue, pre-audit | Nobody can know before looking |\n| 2 | Quote before market analysis | Pricing hours, not outcomes |\n| 3 | Percentage of ad spend | Their revenue rises with your budget |\n| 4 | Refuses a caseload number | The refusal is the answer |\n| 5 | Wants your credentials | Linkage risk, and unnecessary |\n\n### 1. The guarantee\n\nA specific ACoS or revenue promise before anyone has seen your account, your margin, or your category is a sales device. It will be hedged into meaninglessness in the fine print, and hedged guarantees are worse than none because they create a false sense of protection.\n\nWhat is reasonable to guarantee is process: reporting cadence and contents, response times, named personnel. Ask for those in writing instead.\n\n### 2. The premature quote\n\nIf a price arrives before anyone has sized your market, they are selling hours.\n\nA serious process looks at market size, growth trajectory, and return rate first. We use a $2 million per year minimum market size as an entry floor, because below that there is not enough revenue to capture profitably once you account for cost of customer acquisition. That analysis has to precede the number, or the number is describing their capacity rather than your opportunity.\n\n### 3. Percentage of ad spend\n\nYour goal is the lowest cost of customer acquisition you can reach. Their revenue rises with your budget. There is no version where those point the same way, and the conflict surfaces exactly when discipline matters most, which is when a product is failing and the honest advice is to spend less.\n\n### 4. The caseload refusal\n\nAsk how many brands one account manager carries and ask for it in writing. We run about 1.4 brands per operator, which is why a full audit fits into week one.\n\nThe number itself matters. The refusal matters more, because it is the single strongest predictor of the attention your account will actually receive and it costs nothing to disclose when it is good.\n\n### 5. The credential request\n\nNo agency needs your password. User permissions under their own named logins are sufficient and revocable by you at any time.\n\nBeyond the control issue, shared credentials across multiple sellers' accounts from one office creates the pattern Amazon uses to link accounts, and linked accounts can be suspended together. This is a real risk, not a preference.\n\n## The softer signals worth weighing\n\nNot disqualifying on their own, but they accumulate.\n\nCase studies with no failures. Every real operator has killed products and lost accounts. A curated highlight reel tells you they will not be candid later.\n\nOne ACoS target for every product stage. A new product needs aggressive ACoS to build velocity and ranking, a mature product needs efficient ACoS to protect margin, and one number for both means maintenance rather than management.\n\nReporting without cost of customer acquisition. Spend and sales both rise with budget and can present a deteriorating business as a success.\n\nOnly two of the five traffic channels. Organic and Sponsored Products is the industry default. Promotions, the influencer and creator program, and off-channel are where the highest return on ad spend currently sits, and a fee priced as a growth strategy should cover more than two.\n\n## What to do in the first call\n\n1. Ask which of the 5 traffic channels they run, and get specifics on all five.\n2. Ask for two ACoS numbers, launch and mature, on a real product of yours.\n3. Ask what they have recommended killing recently.\n4. Ask the caseload number.\n5. Ask what happens if you leave in month two.\n\nTwenty minutes. Any candidate who cannot handle those five is not an operator.\n\n## What most agencies will not tell you\n\nThe sales process is designed to move you toward price comparison, because price is the term sellers feel qualified to evaluate. Everything on this page is more predictive than price and less commonly examined.\n\nThe deeper point is that most of these red flags are structural rather than dishonest. Percentage-of-ad-spend pricing is popular because it is easy to sell. Long contracts exist because month seven is when clients start asking hard questions. Nobody is scheming. The incentives are what they are, which is exactly why you check them before signing rather than trusting they will not bite.\n\n## Related answers\n\n- [Amazon agency red flags to watch out for](\u002Fblog\u002Famazon-agency-red-flags-to-watch-out-for)\n- [Questions to ask before hiring an Amazon agency](\u002Fblog\u002Fquestions-to-ask-before-hiring-an-amazon-agency)\n- [How to choose an Amazon FBA marketing partner](\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-choose-an-amazon-fba-marketing-partner)\n- [How to spot shady Amazon audit offers](\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-spot-shady-amazon-audit-offers)\n- [Hiring an Amazon agency: the complete guide](\u002Fblog\u002Fhiring-an-agency)\n\nRun all five checks on us before you run them on anyone else, at [Flapen](\u002Famazon-consulting).\n\n## Keep learning\n\n- [Compare Amazon business models](\u002Fguides\u002Fbusiness-models)\n- [Value your Amazon business](\u002Ftools\u002Fbusiness-value-calculator)\n","published","working-with-agencies",[14,15,16,17],"amazon-fba","ppc","fees","seller-account","joel-turcotte-gaucher","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fclusters\u002Fhiring-an-agency-09.jpg","2026-09-04T00:54:51.798+00:00",{"faq":22,"seo":39,"batch":40,"cluster":41,"cover_alt":42,"answers_prompt":43,"primary_benchmark":44},[23,27,31,35],{"id":24,"answer":25,"question":26},"red-flags-when-choosing-an-amazon-marketing-partner-faq-1","A guaranteed ACoS or revenue figure before any audit. Nobody can know that before seeing your account, your margin, and your category, and the guarantee will be hedged into meaninglessness in the fine print.","Which single red flag should end a conversation?",{"id":28,"answer":29,"question":30},"red-flags-when-choosing-an-amazon-marketing-partner-faq-2","No. User permissions under named logins are sufficient and revocable. Shared credentials across multiple sellers from one office also create the pattern Amazon uses to link accounts.","Is a credential request ever legitimate?",{"id":32,"answer":33,"question":34},"red-flags-when-choosing-an-amazon-marketing-partner-faq-3","Process. Reporting cadence and contents, response times by severity, named personnel with a caseload figure, and a scheduled point where ACoS targets are reset by product stage.","What can I reasonably ask them to guarantee?",{"id":36,"answer":37,"question":38},"red-flags-when-choosing-an-amazon-marketing-partner-faq-4","Mostly not. They are structural. 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guide","2026-09-04T16:25:51.798+00:00",[64,65,69],{"slug":52,"title":53,"published_at":54},{"slug":66,"title":67,"published_at":68},"geography-and-marketplaces","Amazon marketplaces by geography: the complete guide","2026-09-04T16:32:51.798+00:00",{"slug":70,"title":71,"published_at":72},"measurement-and-audit","Amazon account measurement and audits: the complete guide","2026-09-04T16:31:51.798+00:00",[]]