Not every brand should hire an agency. Here's who shouldn't. I'll lose some lead
By Gabriel Caceros · May 20, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Not every brand should hire an agency.
Here's who shouldn't.
I'll lose some leads writing this. That's fine.
We turn down brands every month that aren't right for us. And not because they can't pay.
Because hiring an agency at the wrong stage is one of the most expensive mistakes a brand can make.
Here's our internal screening:
Brand under $500K/year in ad spend?
Don't hire a full-service agency.
The math doesn't work.
A good agency runs on 12-18% of ad spend (or a retainer that approximates the same). On $500K/year, that's $60-90K in fees. Most brands at that size can't absorb that without compressing margin to nothing.
What you should do instead:
→ Hire a part-time freelancer at $1,500-3,500/month
→ Buy a self-serve tool (Helium 10, Sellerise, or similar)
→ Spend 4-6 hours/week learning the platform yourself
→ Take a course taught by an actual operator
You'll get 80% of the value at 20% of the cost.
Brand growing 200%+ year-over-year?
Don't hire an agency.
You need someone in the seat 40 hours a week, not 8.
At that growth rate, every week of decision lag costs you. An agency with 12 other clients can't move that fast for you.
What to do:
→ Hire a senior in-house Amazon manager
→ Outsource only what they can't do (DSP, creative production, data engineering)
→ Use the agency selectively for projects, not retainer
Brand at $5M+ in revenue with stable growth?
Now an agency makes sense.
You have the spend volume to justify the fee. You have stability to benefit from a long-term partner. You have the complexity to need specialized expertise (DSP, AMC, multi-marketplace).
Brand expanding to 2+ marketplaces?
An agency makes sense.
Walmart Connect is different from Amazon. Mercado Libre is different from Walmart. The tooling, audiences, and best practices don't transfer.
Hiring three specialists in-house costs $300K+. A good agency does it for less, with cross-pollination.
Brand with no in-house Amazon expertise?
Don't hire an agency yet.
I know this sounds backwards.
But if you can't evaluate what your agency is doing, you can't manage them. You'll get bad results, blame the agency, switch agencies, get bad results again.
What to do first:
→ Hire one in-house person who knows Amazon
→ Have them build basic dashboards and KPIs
→ Then hire an agency to scale what's working
The agency-client relationship works when both sides bring expertise.
Two brands ago, we declined a $14K/month retainer.
Founder-led, $2M/year, growing 280% year-over-year, no in-house team.
Wrong fit. Wrong stage.
We told them: hire your first in-house Amazon manager. Send them to Helium 10 University. Build basic reporting. Come back in 9 months.
They came back in 11. Now we're a great fit.
The brands that win don't hire help fast.
They hire help right.
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