First 90 Days With an Amazon PPC Agency: What to Expect

Wondering what actually happens after you hire an Amazon PPC agency? Here's the week-by-week breakdown of a proper onboarding — and the red flags.

Article summary

Wondering what actually happens after you hire an Amazon PPC agency? Here's the week-by-week breakdown of a proper onboarding — and the red flags.

Weeks 1-2: Audit and access

One of the most common questions I get from brands considering an agency isn't about price or results. It's about the unknown: "What actually happens after I sign?"

Weeks 3-4: Quick wins

It's a fair question. Handing over your ad account — the thing directly connected to your Amazon revenue — to an outside team is a leap of faith. Knowing what a proper onboarding looks like removes some of that fear and, just as importantly, gives you a benchmark to judge whether your new agency is doing it right.

Month 2: Structural work

- Weeks 1-2: Audit and access. The agency learns your account before changing anything. - Weeks 3-4: Quick wins. Low-risk, high-impact fixes (negatives, branded bids, obvious waste). - Month 2: Structural work. Campaign restructuring and search term harvesting hit full stride. - Month 3: Optimization compounds. First clear performance trends emerge. - Red flag: aggressive restructuring in week 1, or no visible changes by week 4

Month 3: Optimization compounds

What should happen: - You grant account access (as a user on your account — you retain ownership) - The agency runs a full audit: campaign structure, Search Term Report, branded vs non-branded performance, conversion rates, budget allocation - They document the current state and identify problems and opportunities - You get a kickoff call covering goals, margin targets, product priorities, and communication cadence

What a good 90-day outcome looks like

What you should receive: An audit summary showing what they found — the issues, the opportunities, and their planned approach. This is essentially the 90-minute audit applied to your account.

Red flags during onboarding

Red flag: If the agency starts aggressively changing campaigns in the first few days without understanding your account, that's reckless. Good management starts with diagnosis.

Frequently Asked Questions

Now the agency starts making changes — but the right kind. Low-risk, high-impact fixes that don't disrupt account momentum.

About the author

What should happen: - Negative keywords added for obviously irrelevant search terms - Branded campaign bids adjusted if they were overspending - Egregious bid problems corrected - Placement modifiers reviewed and reduced if inflated - Zombie campaigns (low spend, no conversions) identified

How long before an Amazon PPC agency shows results?

Meaningful improvement typically begins in weeks 3-4 (quick wins) and compounds through months 2-3. Clear performance trends usually emerge by day 60-90. Anyone promising dramatic results in week 1 is either cutting spend (which improves ACOS but shrinks the account) or overpromising.

What should I do during the agency onboarding?

Provide context (margin targets, product priorities, business goals), respond promptly to their questions, and review their reports critically. The more context you give in the kickoff, the faster they can optimize effectively.

What if I don't see any changes in the first month?

Ask directly what's been done. A good agency can list specific changes. If they can't, or if the account genuinely hasn't been touched beyond the initial setup, that's a sign of set-and-forget management — raise it immediately.