Two Speeds Market There’s a lot of noise around Amazon agency M&A right now. “De
By Simon Ellicott · April 22, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Two Speeds Market
There’s a lot of noise around Amazon agency M&A right now.
“Deals are happening.”
“They are.”
“Market’s hot.”
All true.
But it’s also misleading, because this isn’t one market. It’s two.
On one side:
A small group of buyers
moving fast
buying aggressively
stacking capabilities
They’re not dabbling, they’re racing.
To $50M+
To platform status
To something that looks like a serious exit
They’re buying because:
Scale compounds valuation
Capability reduces risk
Integration creates leverage
They don’t want agencies, they want control points in commerce.
On the other side:
A much larger group quietly exploring “strategic options”
Translation:
Margins tightening
Clients harder to retain
Costs creeping up
So the conversation becomes:
“Who can we merge with?”
“Where can we cut costs?”
“How do we stabilise this?”
This isn’t expansion. It’s insulation.
And this is where people get it wrong. They think:
“If M&A is hot… why aren’t we getting inbound?”
Because most agencies sit in the middle.
Not ambitious enough to buy.
Not differentiated enough to sell.
To be blunt ... Execution isn’t valuable anymore.
PPC? Everywhere
Tools? Everywhere
AI workflows? Everywhere
No one is acquiring you to run ads faster. That’s already solved.
Buyers are acquiring for one thing:
Better decisions at scale
Pattern recognition
Commercial judgement
Direction, not delivery
That’s what integrates.
That’s what compounds.
That’s what holds value post-deal.
So the gap widens.
Buyers get sharper.
Sellers get more pressured.
The middle gets thinner.
If your agency disappeared tomorrow…
What actually gets lost?
Execution?
Or direction?
One is replaced in a quarter, the other leaves a hole.
And that’s the whole game now.
You’re either:
Building something others want to buy…
Or becoming something that needs to merge.
No middle ground.
#AmazonAgencyM&A #AgencyGrowthStrategy #CommerceOperators