To hire an Amazon PPC expert, decide first whether you need a freelancer, an agency or an in-house hire, then test candidates on the weekly work that actually moves results: search term harvesting, negative keywords, bid and placement changes, budget pacing and clear reporting. A short paid trial on a real campaign tells you more than any CV.
At a glance
- Freelancer: flexible and direct, but one person with no cover.
- Agency: a team with cover and wider skills, with less direct control over who does the work.
- In-house: full focus on your brand, but salary, training and holiday cover are yours.
- Weekly work: search terms, negatives, bids and placements, budgets, reporting.
- Test: give every candidate the same search term report and ask what they would do.
An Amazon PPC expert is a specialist who plans, runs and optimises Amazon Ads campaigns, such as Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display, to grow sales at a cost your margin can support. The title is unregulated, so judge candidates on how they work, not on what they call themselves.
Should you hire a freelancer, an agency or in-house?
A freelancer suits smaller accounts that need hands-on help, an agency suits brands that want a team with cover and broader skills, and an in-house hire suits larger brands that need someone working only on their account every day. Most brands start with one of the first two.
| Factor | Freelance expert | Agency | In-house hire |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost structure | Hourly, fixed project or monthly fee | Monthly fee (fixed, % of spend or % of sales) | Salary, employment costs, tools and training |
| Coverage and holidays | Depends on one person | Team can cover absences | You arrange cover |
| Skills breadth | Strong in their speciality | PPC plus listings, creative and operations | Depends on the hire; may need outside help |
| Accountability | Direct, but limited recourse | Contract with a company and a named manager | Managed by you |
| Scalability | Limited by one person’s hours | Can add people or marketplaces | Requires further hiring |
| Speed to start | Fast | Fast, usually after an audit | Slow: recruitment and notice periods |
If you lean towards an agency, read Amazon PPC agency pricing to compare fee models, and how to check an agency’s ratings.
What does a good Amazon PPC expert do each week?
A good Amazon PPC expert works through the same loop every week: review search terms, add winners as keywords, add wasted terms as negatives, adjust bids and placements, check budgets, and report what changed. The loop matters more than any single clever tactic.
1. Search term harvesting
Amazon’s reporting guide describes the search term report as showing shopper searches that led to at least one click, and recommends using it to find high-performing searches to add as new keywords. A good expert moves converting search terms into exact-match targeting so they can control the bid.
2. Negative keywords
The same guide recommends adding under-performing search terms as negative keywords. An expert checks for irrelevant terms and for terms that spend without selling, and adds negatives to stop wasted clicks. They should also avoid blocking terms too early on too little data.
3. Bid and placement changes
Amazon’s placement report compares results at top of search with other placements, and Amazon says it helps identify campaigns that could benefit from a placement-level bid adjustment. Experts also choose a bidding strategy. Amazon’s dynamic bidding guide says “up and down” can raise or lower bids by up to 100% based on performance, so you should be prepared to pay up to double your bid.
4. Budget pacing
Amazon’s budget guide says daily budgets are spent as quickly as possible, and an out-of-budget campaign cannot show ads until the budget resets at midnight. An expert spots campaigns running out early, moves budget from campaigns that are not using theirs, and uses budget rules for busy periods.
5. Reporting
Expect a weekly note covering spend, sales, ACoS and total sales, what changed and why, and what is planned next. See ACoS vs TACoS for why total sales belong in that report.
Which skills and interview questions should you use?
Test for structured thinking, data handling and commercial sense. Good answers mention your margin, your stock and your data, not just tactics. Ask every candidate the same questions so you can compare them fairly.
Skills to look for
- Clear campaign structure by product, match type and goal.
- Comfort with bulk files and spreadsheets.
- Understanding of ACoS, ROAS and how they relate to margin.
- Knowledge of Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display.
- Plain-English reporting.
Interview questions
- How do you set an ACoS target for a product? (Listen for margin.)
- Walk me through what you do with a search term report each week.
- When would you add a negative keyword, and when would you wait for more data?
- How do you decide between fixed bids and dynamic bids?
- A campaign runs out of budget by midday. What do you check?
- How would you launch ads for a new product with no reviews?
- How will you access my account? (The answer should be user permissions, never my password.)
- What would your weekly report to me look like?
What trial project should you give an Amazon PPC expert?
Give a short, paid, clearly scoped trial that uses your real data but limits risk. The aim is to see how the candidate thinks and communicates, not to get free work or a quick win you cannot repeat.
- Search term review: share a recent search term report and ask for a list of new keywords, new negatives and the reasoning.
- Account audit: ask for a written audit of one marketplace with prioritised fixes. Compare it with our Amazon PPC audit checklist.
- Single-campaign trial: let them manage one campaign or product for a few weeks with a fixed budget cap.
- Restructure plan: ask how they would reorganise your campaigns, without making changes yet.
Grant trial access through user permissions with only what the task needs, and remove it when the trial ends.
When does an agency make more sense than one expert?
An agency usually makes more sense when you sell in several marketplaces, need cover during holidays, or want PPC joined up with listings and account health. A single expert can be enough for one marketplace and a small catalogue.
EcommTech (ECOMMTECHAGENCY LTD) is a UK-registered Amazon and marketplace agency with a team in the UK and Pakistan. Our Amazon PPC management service gives you a named account manager backed by a team, with weekly reporting and a monthly review call.
Hiring EcommTech instead of a single freelancer
You get the hands-on PPC specialist plus the listing, creative and account specialists behind them, with one named account manager as your single point of contact. EcommTech (ECOMMTECHAGENCY LTD) is a UK-registered Amazon and marketplace agency with a team in the UK and Pakistan. The team has worked with marketplace sellers since 2020, and the company was registered in England and Wales in September 2024.
For brand owners: how we work
- Free written audit: we review your campaigns, listings and account health and send a written audit within 3 working days.
- Plan and fixed fee: a plan with timeline, the team assigned and a fixed monthly fee, agreed in writing before anything starts.
- Onboarding: access through Amazon’s user permissions, so you keep ownership of your account and can remove us at any time. Daily check-ins while we settle in.
- Run and report: weekly reports on sales, ACoS, rankings and account health, plus a monthly review call. Month to month, with no lock-in.
You get a named account manager and an in-house team of 40+ specialists across PPC, listings, design and operations. See our Amazon PPC management service for the full scope.
For agencies in Germany, Europe and the US
We work white-label with marketing agencies, Shopify developers and consultants who want to offer Amazon, TikTok Shop and European marketplace services without building their own team. Your client, your brand, our specialists. See how our white-label Amazon PPC for agencies works.
- White-label delivery: PPC, listing and account management for your clients.
- Your branding: shared reporting you can forward under your agency’s name.
- European marketplaces: onboarding and management for your DACH, Dutch and Polish clients on Amazon, OTTO, Kaufland, bol.com and Allegro.
- Referrals: if you prefer to hand a client off completely, we can agree a referral arrangement.
- Working hours: our team in Pakistan starts the day before the UK and central Europe, so overnight data is checked before your morning.
Proof you can check
- Registered in England and Wales, company no. 15972352.
- 5.0 rating on Google from 14 reviews.
- Founder’s Upwork profile: Top Rated, 98% Job Success, 38 contracts, 5,700+ hours.
- Amazon Ads Verified Partner and Kaufland Verified Service Partner.
Frequently asked questions
What does an Amazon PPC expert do?
They plan, run and optimise Amazon Ads campaigns. Weekly work includes reviewing search terms, adding keywords and negatives, adjusting bids and placements, pacing budgets and reporting results.
Is a freelancer or an agency better for Amazon PPC?
A freelancer can suit a small account in one marketplace. An agency gives you holiday cover, wider skills and a company to contract with, which suits brands selling in several marketplaces.
How do I test an Amazon PPC expert before hiring?
Ask the same interview questions to every candidate, then run a short paid trial such as a search term review or a written audit, with limited user-permission access.
Should I give an Amazon PPC expert my Seller Central password?
No. Use Amazon’s user permissions to give controlled access, and invite them to your Amazon Ads account with only the access they need.
Can my agency use EcommTech as its Amazon PPC team?
Yes. EcommTech works white-label with marketing agencies, Shopify developers and consultants, delivering PPC, listing and account management for their clients with shareable reporting under the agency’s brand.
Brand owner or agency? Talk to the team that does the work. Get a free written audit of your Amazon account within 3 working days, or ask us about white-label Amazon PPC for your agency’s clients. WhatsApp +44 7878 479380 or email info@ecommtechltd.com. We reply within 24 hours.
