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What to expect when working with an Amazon agency?

This topic is very important for all the companies considering an agency, and it's crucial to understand for the following reasons:

Setting the right expectations:

For the last five years, we as an agency have seen many different companies, brands, and teams. Sometimes the expectations are just not correct—sometimes they're too high, and sometimes companies don't expect that an Amazon agency will act proactively and maybe create some additional strategies that aren't in the agreement but are important for Amazon store’s performance.

Understanding the value of such a partnership:

It's important for companies to understand why they need an agency. If they already have an agency, it's essential to know what the agency should deliver and what additional services they can ask for. Companies can push the agency to work better by providing more information and insights that may be relevant to other aspects of the e-commerce business.

Introducing INNELS

This topic is very important, and if you're not familiar with INNELS yet, we've been a full-service Amazon marketing agency for the last five years. Right now, we're expanding to other interesting marketplaces in Europe and the U.S. We've managed more than 40 brands, and we’ve seen some quite interesting and different cases.

Amazon Seller Central vs Amazon Vendor

Not many companies realize you can sell directly on Amazon through Seller Central. This allows B2C businesses to reach consumers directly by launching products themselves. Alternatively, you can be a vendor, where Amazon buys your products and sells them to customers. This means less control for you but can be beneficial for larger brands that prefer not to handle operations. Vendor Central remains important and many agencies specialize in managing it.

Different types of Amazon sellers

Understanding the different types of Amazon sellers—like retailers, online arbitrage sellers, or wholesalers—can help you choose the right agency. Most Amazon agency needs come from private label or brand owners, who often have their own manufacturing or branding. Market research shows 70-80% of companies using Amazon agencies are brand owners.

Other business models include drop shipping and Merch by Amazon, where products are produced or shipped only after a customer orders. This model is growing, especially for companies creating merchandise without holding stock.

Different companies on Amazon have varied needs, leading to different requirements for agencies. For instance, onboarding a new company to Amazon involves registering, setting up logistics, and handling tax issues—tasks that can be very time-consuming. Agencies should provide clear instructions for document submission, as Amazon's approval process is often robotic.

Discovery and strategy calls

If you're new to Amazon, an agency should ask about your long-term goals, such as scaling your brand or building awareness. They should perform a break-even analysis and provide detailed cost and revenue forecasts based on market research and industry benchmarks. This helps in understanding the financial aspects early on.

For existing sellers, managing Amazon can be time-consuming due to issues like seller support. A full-service agency can help with logistics, inventory management, PPC, brand strategy, and more. It’s more efficient to have one agency handle everything rather than splitting tasks among different agencies.

A full-service agency should offer a comprehensive strategy, integrating various aspects of your Amazon business. They should also evaluate the performance of your listings and advertising efforts to ensure all components are working together effectively.

In summary, working with a full-service agency provides a holistic approach to managing your Amazon business, aligning strategies with your goals and optimizing performance across the platform.

What should you expect from a full-service agency?

A comprehensive approach that covers technical and operational aspects. Here are a few key elements:

1. Strategy First: A clear strategy built on tools like break-even analysis, competitive research, and data-driven insights.
2. PPC Management: A focus on improving keyword rankings, one of the most important metrics for success on Amazon. A good keyword ranking strategy involves both SEO and PPC, and it’s crucial for driving both revenue and reducing advertising costs over time. As your keyword rankings improve, your conversion rates, click-through rates, and overall sales should improve too.
3. Full Account Management: Critical tasks such as seller support, buyer communication (responding within 24 hours), account health monitoring, and ensuring compliance to avoid issues like account suspensions.
4. Brand Management: Managing key elements of your brand on Amazon, including A+ content, Brand Store, sponsored display campaigns, and more.
5. Product Management: Sometimes companies focus heavily on optimizing PPC and keywords without considering the product itself. It’s essential to evaluate product offerings at a deeper level. For example, offering product bundles or analyzing competitor pricing and packaging. I’ve seen cases where selling packs of 10 pregnancy tests didn’t work because consumers preferred buying packs of three or five at a lower price. Competitors offered smaller bundles, and consumers opted for the more affordable option.
6. Inventory Management and Control: Inventory management and control are very important. Internally, a full-service agency can evaluate not only how much you will be selling based on previous data but also consult with account managers and the PPC department. They will understand how much you expect to grow in sales and suggest the right inventory to send, especially if you are shipping to Amazon warehouses. It is crucial to avoid running out of stock or having too much stock, which can impact account health.
7. Promotions: Promotions are a key part of Amazon strategy. It's important to stay up-to-date with different deals like Prime Day, Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and all Q4 events. Experiment with various advertising and promotional options such as vouchers. An agency should provide a strategy each quarter for handling these deals.
8. Review Management: Review management is essential for growing your Amazon account. Reviews should be utilized effectively. A good agency will communicate customer feedback and suggest improvements for the product based on the reviews.
9. Performance Evaluation Reports: Performance evaluation reports, including P&L statements and other analytics, are important. Agencies should provide comprehensive reporting and show various data to help you understand performance.
10. PPC Agencies: PPC agencies, one of the most popular types after full-service agencies, should have clear goals set with the agency. These goals should include metrics beyond just sales or brand awareness, such as impressions, new-to-brand orders, click-through rates (CTR), cost per click (CPC), and conversion rates (CVR). The focus should be on reducing ad spend while improving keyword rank, sales, and profitability.
11. Advertising Sprints: Discussing advertising sprints with an agency is effective. Increase advertising Tacos or reallocate budget for a set period to achieve specific revenue goals. After running the tests, evaluate their effectiveness, and retain the best-performing campaigns while adjusting the budget accordingly.
12. Improving Metrics: A PPC agency should provide suggestions for improving CTR, CVR, and other metrics. This might include recommendations on pricing, listing optimization, or adjustments to the main image or title. These suggestions should be communicated to the internal team or other agencies managing these aspects.

Conclusion:

Understanding what to expect from an Amazon agency is key to setting the right expectations and unlocking the full potential of your partnership. A full-service agency should provide a comprehensive approach to managing and optimizing all aspects of your Amazon presence, from strategy and PPC management to inventory control and performance evaluation.

Want to learn more and meet others in the Amazon selling field? Join our Skool community! INNELS is hosting a free community where Amazon sellers can connect with experts, share ideas, and discover how to improve their Amazon business. Join us here: Amazon Blueprint by INNELS, a Skool community

We can’t wait to see you there!