Pricing
Amazon agency pricing, explained before the discovery call.
Almost nobody explains this, which is itself informative. Below is how Amazon agency pricing actually works, what each model quietly incentivises, and which one Elvatco uses. The headline rate matters far less than what the structure rewards.
The four models
Every Amazon agency pricing model is one of these four.
Read the right-hand column first. It is the one that determines what the agency does on a Tuesday afternoon when nobody is watching.
| Model | How it is billed | What it rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Flat retainer | A fixed monthly fee, independent of results. | Predictable for you. Rewards nothing in particular, which also means it does not reward the wrong thing. Risk sits with you if the agency underdelivers. |
| Percentage of revenue | A share of your gross Amazon sales. | Top-line growth at any cost. Discounting, aggressive bidding and loss-making SKUs all raise the fee. You absorb the margin damage. |
| Percentage of ad spend | A share of what you spend on advertising. | Spending more. Eliminating wasted spend directly reduces the agency's own income. The conflict here is the sharpest of the four. |
| Hybrid, retainer plus performance | A reduced base fee plus a share of an agreed performance metric. | Whatever metric you picked. Tie it to revenue and you have rebuilt model two. Tie it to net profit or contribution margin and the incentives finally point the same way as yours. |
The single most useful question to ask any Amazon agency, including this one: if you cut my ad spend in half and my profit went up, would you earn more or less? Three of the four models above answer “less”.
Elvatco
Three ways to work together.
A boutique engagement: senior ownership, a deliberately limited client list, and a fee structure tied to the number on the bottom of the statement.
PPC only
Retainer + share of net · quoted after the audit
For accounts where the listings already convert and the operations are handled, and the gap is purely in the advertising.
- Unit economics rebuilt per ASIN
- Campaign architecture rebuild
- Weekly search-term harvesting
- Bid ceilings from each product’s own margin
- Placement and budget pacing
- Monthly contribution-margin reporting
Most engagements
Full account management
Retainer + share of net · quoted after the audit
For brands that want one person accountable for the whole channel rather than a coordinator between specialists.
- Everything in PPC only
- Catalogue and variation hygiene
- Listings and A+ content
- Inventory and demand planning
- Pricing and buy box
- Compliance, suppressions and cases
- Competitor tracking built per brand
- TikTok Shop, Shopify and Walmart on request
New product development
Per project · scoped and fixed before it starts
For brands adding to the range, where the decision of what to make matters more than how it is launched.
- Category and competitor gap analysis
- Validation against real unmet complaints
- Margin modelled at launch pricing
- Product design and sourcing
- Launch plan tied to inventory and cash
Why there is no number on this page
Scope sets the fee, and scope genuinely differs. A tight range with clean listings is not the same job as a 400-SKU catalogue with suppressions and a broken campaign structure. A figure quoted before seeing the account would be the wrong figure.
What you get instead
A free audit first, then a written scope and a fixed fee for that scope, before you commit to anything. The audit is what makes the number real, and it tells you what the account is leaking either way.
What is never charged: a percentage of ad spend.
The audit is free and carries no obligation. If the audit says your account does not need an operator, that is what the audit will say.
Drivers
What moves Amazon agency cost up or down.
If you are collecting quotes, these are the things that make two proposals for the same business land thousands apart. Worth knowing before you compare them.
| Factor | Pushes the fee up when | Pushes it down when |
|---|---|---|
| Catalogue size | Hundreds of SKUs with variations and seasonal lines | A tight range of core products |
| Catalogue health | Suppressions, split variations, broken listings | Clean, indexed, converting |
| Channels | Amazon plus TikTok Shop, Shopify or Walmart | Amazon alone |
| Marketplaces | Several countries with separate compliance | One marketplace |
| Scope | Full ownership including inventory and compliance | Advertising only |
| Starting state | A rescue, where month one is all repair | A working account that needs scaling |
A quote that arrives without anyone asking about those six things is a list price, not a price for your business. It will be wrong in one direction or the other, and you will find out which in month three.
Comparing scopes
Amazon account management pricing versus PPC-only pricing.
These get compared as if they are the same purchase. They are not, and the cheaper one is not always better value.
PPC only covers advertising. It is the smaller scope and the smaller fee. It also carries a ceiling, because ad efficiency follows conversion rate, and conversion rate is set by the listing, the images and the price. If nobody is allowed to change those, there is a limit to how good the advertising can get. That limit is real and you will hit it.
Full account management covers the catalogue, listings, inventory, compliance and advertising together. Higher fee, no ceiling, and the work compounds. Fixing a listing makes the ads cheaper. Fixing inventory stops you paying twice for rank you already had.
The honest guidance: if your listings are genuinely good and your operations are handled, PPC-only is the right purchase and you should not pay for more. If you are not sure whether your listings are good, that uncertainty is itself the answer, and the audit will settle it at no cost.
Questions
Straight answers.
Why not just list a price?
Because Amazon agency pricing that is listed as a flat figure is either too high for a simple account or too low for a complex one, and the only way to know which you are is to look. What is published instead is the structure: how the fee is calculated, what it is tied to, and what is never charged. Those do not change per client.
Is there a minimum commitment?
Structural work takes a quarter to show properly, so very short engagements tend to waste everyone's money. The exact term is agreed with the scope after the audit, alongside the 90-day guarantee above.
Who pays for the ad spend?
You do, directly to Amazon, from your own account. The fee is separate and is never a share of it. That separation is the whole point of refusing the percentage-of-ad-spend model.
Are there setup or onboarding fees?
Any one-off work, such as a full catalogue restructure or a new A+ build, is quoted separately and agreed before it starts. Nothing appears on an invoice that you have not already seen in writing.
How do I compare this against a cheaper quote?
Ask both of us the same two questions. Who specifically will do the weekly work, and what happens to your fee if ad spend falls while profit rises. The answers usually make the comparison straightforward.
Is there a minimum account size?
Practically, yes. Below a certain revenue the fee is a large share of your profit and the maths does not work for you, whatever it does for me. The audit establishes this before either of us commits.
Is Amazon account management pricing different from PPC-only pricing?
Yes, because the scope is different. Full account management carries catalogue, listings, inventory, compliance and advertising. PPC alone carries advertising, and it also carries a ceiling, since conversion rate is set by listings you would not control.
What happens if it does not work in 90 days?
You get the fees back for that period. At kickoff we agree a written baseline and what progress against it looks like. If after 90 days that baseline has not moved, the engagement ends and the fees paid for those 90 days are refunded. The definition is agreed before any work starts, so neither of us is arguing about what counts afterwards.
Free audit
Get the audit before you get the quote.
The audit tells you what the account is leaking each month. Judge any fee, mine or anyone else's, against that figure rather than against a market rate.
Scope and fee are agreed in writing before any work starts.
Request the audit