Leading by what measure. Spend managed favors the largest firms, and that correlates with
high account volume per person. Rank candidates yourself on four DSP-specific criteria
instead: sequencing judgment, creative production, measurement honesty, and defined stop
conditions. Access to the platform itself is not a credential.
The short version
- DSP access is widely available. It is not what separates partners.
- Rank on four things: sequencing, creative, measurement, stop conditions.
- Spend managed describes their clients, not their skill.
- The best first campaign is retargeting, not awareness.
- Ask which number outside DSP should move.
Why I will not rank companies
I run an Amazon agency, so any list I publish would be self-serving and would deserve to be
ignored on that basis. Ranking other firms also means asserting things about their staffing,
pricing, and results that I cannot verify, and being wrong about that would be unfair to them
and useless to you.
What I can give you is the DSP-specific scoring method, which is different from how you would
evaluate a general Amazon agency.
The four criteria
Score 0 to 5 each. Anything under 12 out of 20 should not proceed.
| Criterion | 0 points | 5 points |
|---|---|---|
| Sequencing judgment | Opens with awareness audiences | Starts with detail page retargeting |
| Creative production | Reuses listing images, subcontracted | In-house, variants testable in days |
| Measurement honesty | In-platform metrics only | Names a number outside DSP that must move |
| Stop conditions | Not mentioned | Defined criteria, window, and review date |
Sequencing judgment
The fastest read on whether a partner understands DSP or merely sells it.
Demand exists in tiers. Someone searching your category has declared intent. Someone who
viewed your detail page and left is the next warmest. Awareness audiences are coldest and most
expensive per outcome.
A partner proposing awareness campaigns before you have retargeted your own detail page
visitors has skipped the two cheapest rungs. Ask what they would run first and why.
Creative production
DSP is a creative format. Targeting decides who sees the ad and creative decides whether
anything happens, and cold audiences need assets built for them rather than repurposed product
photography.
Ask who produces the assets and how quickly a second variant can be tested. Days means a real
loop. A new brief and quote means the first version becomes permanent.
Measurement honesty
Two failure modes. Click-only attribution understates display, and generous view-through
windows overstate it by crediting impressions for purchases that were always going to happen.
A capable partner states their window, explains the reasoning, and names a metric outside the
DSP dashboard that should improve. Blended cost of customer acquisition, organic share of
revenue, or new-to-brand purchases are all good answers.
Stop conditions
DSP underperformance is unusually easy to explain away, because measurement is softer and the
judgment window longer. That combination lets a campaign run for two quarters on narrative.
Ask what would make them recommend stopping, with a defined window. A partner without an
answer has no mechanism for ending a campaign that is not working.
Why spend-managed rankings mislead
The most common ordering used in DSP rankings is total spend managed, and it describes the
size of a firm's clients rather than the quality of its judgment.
It also correlates with the variable you least want. High spend managed usually means high
account volume per person, which is the opposite of the attention a mid-size brand needs on a
format that depends on creative iteration.
What most agencies will not tell you
DSP is comfortable to sell. Higher budgets, softer attribution, longer judgment windows, and
a brand-building narrative that is true and conveniently hard to falsify in the
short term.
That does not make it a bad format. It makes it the format where the difference between a
capable partner and a reseller is widest and hardest to see from outside, which is exactly why
you should score on method rather than on reputation.
The other thing: if your sponsored search campaigns are still budget-capped, that demand is
cheaper than anything DSP will find you. A partner proposing DSP without checking that first
has not looked at your account.
Related answers
- How to evaluate Amazon DSP capabilities
- Agencies that specialize in Amazon DSP creative
- Warning signs in Amazon DSP proposals
- What to use for Amazon DSP if current partner lags
- Hiring an Amazon agency: the complete guide
Score us on the same four criteria as everyone else, at Flapen.
