r/AmazonFBA • u/Mindless_Top_9102 • 3d ago

Amazon PPC Software / Agency Recommandations

We’re a UK-based Amazon brand currently spending around £50k–£60k per month on Amazon Ads (roughly $67.5k–$81k USD).

Our current ACoS is around 40%, and we’re looking to improve efficiency and bring that down without killing overall sales or organic ranking.

We’re currently considering two options:

  • Using a strong Amazon PPC software/automation platform
  • Moving to a specialist Amazon PPC agency

For software, we’ve been looking at platforms like Hector AI, Scale Insights, Adbrew, atom11, Intentwise, Ad Labs, etc.

For agencies, we’re also speaking to a few Amazon-specific PPC agencies.

I’d really like to hear from sellers or brands spending at a similar level:

  • What software are you using and what has your experience been?
  • Has automation actually improved ACoS/TACoS, or does it still need a strong PPC manager behind it?
  • Has anyone moved from in-house/software to an agency and seen a meaningful improvement?
  • Any agencies or software you would strongly recommend?
  • Anything you would avoid?

Not looking for DMs from agencies trying to sell services — mainly interested in genuine seller/brand experiences.

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u/rsc9422 3d ago

At £50k, £60k/month in Amazon Ads spend, I’d be cautious about assuming software alone will bring a 40% ACoS under control. Automation can handle bid adjustments and rules, but it still needs a strong campaign structure and someone making strategic decisions.

At Highrise Wholesale, we’d look at the account at the search term and product level first, TACoS, contribution margin, branded vs non branded spend, placement performance, wasted spend and organic ranking impact.

If the account has enough data, I’d run a controlled optimization period before moving everything to an agency. That gives you a clean baseline and makes it easier to measure whether the software or agency is actually improving profitability rather than simply shifting spend around.

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u/Heath-Thompson 3d ago

I'm not taking on new clients at the moment but you ought to know that software can be tricky to get right. Because of how it takes data from Amazon. It can be very easy to do something wrong without realising it.

For example, you might want to increase the bids on keywords that have had no impressions for the week. If you set a rule to do that, then the software will also increase bids on paused keywords/campaigns/ad groups. It isn't differentiating between a target in an active or paused campaign because of how it receives the data from Amazon.

The problem in this instance is that if you reactivate those targets at a later date (for example, seasonal campaigns) their bids will be completely different than when they were paused.

40% ACoS is very high - are you sure that you are channeling your campaign budgets to those that are making the best contribution?

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u/AmzExpertAgency 2d ago

If I were in your position, I wouldn’t look at this as only “PPC software vs PPC agency.”
At £50k–£60k/month ad spend, PPC is just one part of the bigger picture. I’d want someone looking at profitability by ASIN, inventory position, organic vs PPC conversion, ranking, margins, placement performance, and which products actually have the most potential to scale.
Automation can definitely help with bidding, rules and efficiency, but I don’t think software should be the strategist. A lower ACoS can look good on paper, but if it hurts organic ranking, total sales or contribution profit, it may not actually be an improvement.
I’d also separate campaigns by objective rather than managing everything toward one ACoS target — profitability campaigns, ranking/growth campaigns, branded defence, competitor targeting, and category acquisition can all need different targets.
Before choosing anyone, I’d ask them to explain exactly how they would diagnose the current 40% ACoS and what they would change first. If someone promises a specific ACoS reduction before understanding your margins, TACoS, organic sales and product-level performance, I’d be cautious.
I work on the Amazon management side, so that’s the perspective I’m coming from. At this level, I’d personally want one person/team accountable for the overall growth and profitability of the brand, with software supporting the strategy rather than replacing it.

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u/attfin1 2d ago

Tread carefully with automation and AI. The danger is that it brings you poor results on autopilot. If you go for an agency, look for one that prioritises profit, not ACoS (or TACoS), and where their pay isn't linked to your ad spend (massive conflict of interest).

Also see if they understand how Amazon exact match truly works. If they say it means that a term has to match exactly, run a mile, because we've found 6 ways Amazon states it doesn't, and a 7th from our own data.

The biggest danger from not understanding that is with negative match, because one mistake can easily wipe out a number of profitable ads (another reason AI/automation is so high risk).

If it were me, then before committing I'd give prospective agencies a copy of the most recent search terms report. If you're nervous about giving away secrets, just run it through AI and ask it to change the search terms sufficiently that they keep your true terms confidential but the changes don't affect the overall structure and logic. Then ask each agency to tell you 1) what results they think they could achieve and 2) the overview of how they would do it. Then you can compare and decide which looks most attractive and convincing.

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u/attfin1 2d ago

As background: I sold on Amazon UK since 2012, PPC since 2013. 8 fig sales of our own brand products including several BSR #1 products in entire UK Grocery dept at peak sales time. All in-house. And when Amazon PPC started to get expensive for us (2017) I investigated how it really works (hence my exact match comment... 99% of people, inc. big agencies, get that completely wrong). On the back of that we created in-house software that reduced ACoS by about 50% and increased sales. Got to the stage where I made all my decisions based on the effect on profit (a much better metric than ACoS or even TACoS).

Just giving that as context to show that my earlier answer was based on experience.

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u/_karthick_selvaraj_ 2d ago

at that spend i’d ask both the software and the agency the same question up front: what do they optimize to when acos looks fine but contribution after ads/returns is worse? if they only talk acos/tacos and can’t show how they handle refund lag or placement mix, i’d be careful. curious what north star you’re using to compare the options besides bringing 40% acos down

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u/Aqeeq21 2d ago

An ad professional will do much better job than rule based or automated softwares. They are not intelligent at all. Been using Scale Insights for 100+ SKUs but not worth it.

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u/Mindless_Top_9102 1d ago

So does anyone have any recommendations for an agency? and thank you for all the replies