Have you ever heard—or said—any of the following at your company?

“Amazon’s not specifically important to us, so we’re not doing a lot there.”

“We have one person assigned to managing our Amazon channel.”

“Our Google Ads agency is taking care of our Amazon advertising.”

Selling on Amazon is highly competitive, and simply listing products and putting up some ads isn’t enough to succeed. Online retailers must have a strategic approach to stand out, which is why having a team of experienced marketers—or hiring an outside agency—is crucial. Amazon’s marketplace is driven by complex algorithms, shifting consumer behaviors, and ever-changing ad strategies. Without expertise, retailers risk getting lost in the sea of competitors.

Experienced Amazon marketers understand how to optimize product listings with the right keywords, compelling copy, and high-quality images to boost visibility and conversion rates. They also know how to navigate Amazon’s advertising system, including sponsored products, sponsored brands, and display ads, ensuring that ad spend is maximized for the best ROI.

Beyond advertising, a strong marketing team continuously analyzes performance metrics, adjusts pricing strategies, and manages customer reviews to maintain a strong seller reputation. External agencies offer another advantage: They bring industry knowledge, cutting-edge tools, and a data-driven approach that many in-house teams lack.

We sat down with Liz Adamson, head of ecommerce at Nile, who broke down the five signs that you need to hire a marketing agency to lead your Amazon channel. Here’s what she had to say:

1. You don’t know how or don’t have time to optimize your product pages for traffic and conversion.

As Amazon attracts more and more sellers and rolls out more and more tools, you need to not only stay on top of changes but also understand how to best leverage the new tools.

“I’ve seen storefronts with poor designs, resulting in poor conversion rates and enhanced brand content that looks great on desktop but is unreadable on mobile,” says Adamson. “I’ve also seen product pages done by ‘experts’ that use so much keyword stuffing that anyone reading the copy would not understand what the product is.” 

As you consider agencies, Adamson advises that you ask them about their techniques and how they plan to optimize your product page. Make sure they are taking into account the full customer experience—including mobile optimization—and are not just relying on tricks and gimmicks to get keywords indexed. 

2. You don’t know how or have time to execute weekly ad optimization.

Advertising has become a necessary part of selling on Amazon, and sponsored product and display advertising have become much more competitive and require different tactics. If you want to get the most out of your ad spend, Adamson says, you need to be strategic in how you use the different platforms and how you set up your campaign. Amazon is not a “set it and forget it” platform—it requires weekly review of all applicable data. There are very clear performance differences between ads that are not set up well and those with a clear strategy and weekly maintenance.

“Advertising is probably the hardest part to get right on Amazon,” says Adamson. “It really does require someone who is deep in those advertising weeds. It’s a multibillion-dollar business for Amazon, and due to that, it has become very complicated. There’s a lot of noise out there about how to do it right, and it’s hard to sift through what strategies are exactly right for each individual brand.” 

Adamson recounts one lesson she learned early in her career while working for another company. Her team hired several software developers to build some Amazon-specific software—even though they had no prior experience with Amazon, thinking they could quickly learn how to adapt to Amazon’s nuances.

“These were very smart product people, smart engineers, and they could build software like nobody’s business,” she says. “But it took them a year to get caught up to our people who were living and breathing Amazon every day and had been for years. That was a year of paying their salaries to have them learn to work with Amazon.”

Someone who knows the ins and outs of advertising optimization on Amazon can often immediately increase your sales exponentially.

“I can’t tell you how many accounts I’ve taken over where they are really good at page optimization because they do something similar for their Shopify site, but their advertising optimization is a mess,” Adamson says. “We end up rebuilding the whole thing and getting two times the results when we take over advertising.”

3. You have trouble staying up to date with Amazon policy changes.

If you have experience selling on Amazon, you know just how quickly the platform can institute changes and how little it sometimes shares with sellers. Some of the most recent policy adjustments involve title changes, lost inventory reimbursement, and inbound placement fees. Sometimes changes are announced, and other times they are rolled out quietly.

“Amazon can have 100 to 200 policy changes or new features per year,” Adamson says. “If you haven’t had time to sit down and figure out what that means for your business, then you should consider hiring an agency. An Amazon-versed agency will already understand the impact of new changes on your business and the best way to leverage them.”

4. You are just starting out on Amazon.

For those just starting out on Amazon, Adamson’s advice is clear and concise: Don’t try to do this yourself!

“If you’re just launching for the first time on Amazon, that is a clear indication that you should hire an agency,” she says. “There are so many things that can go wrong if you don’t already have this experience firsthand.”

Many of those things that can go awry can also get you kicked off the platform. Amazon’s myriad rules can get product listings suspended or, in more egregious cases, booted from the platform entirely.

“There are so many quirky things about Amazon that you can spend hundreds of hours learning about it and still make mistakes,” Adamson says. “If you’re starting on Amazon for the first time, you need to hire someone who knows all the rules. There’s no problem with do-it-yourselfers, but it would take you a year to get up to speed on everything.”

5. You want to focus your time on developing products or other sales channels.

If you are actively growing a business, you likely would rather spend the majority of your time actively developing that brand. This can leave you with little time to really master selling on Amazon, and you would be better served outsourcing to someone with that specific expertise. Focus on what you are good at and where your interests lie and hire out the rest. This is true for many business tasks, including accounting, design, marketing, etc. 

“Amazon can suck a ton of time, and there’s probably more you want to be doing as a business owner or as a VP of marketing or sales. Depending on what your role is, there’s undoubtedly a lot of other areas that need your focus and attention,” Adamson says. “So why not let an expert come in and take that off your plate while you work on the next big strategy?”

Adamson suggests creating a list of what you want to keep in house vs. outsource.

“Some clients we work with prefer to handle all their inventory monitoring themselves and outsource just the advertising. Others don’t have the bandwidth to closely monitor their Amazon account and need an agency that can take care of the entire Amazon channel. They then rely on the agency to send regular updates on sales metrics, account health, inventory status, marketing efforts, etc. Find an agency that will take care of your specific needs and allow you to run your business in the most efficient way possible.”

In conclusion, managing any company’s Amazon account is a bigger job than any one person can handle. It takes a team to write compelling copy, create interesting graphic designs, curate sophisticated advertising strategies, analyze advertising data, pivot quickly as needed, and keep up with constant changes at Amazon. 

Nile can help.

Without a dedicated marketing strategy, retailers risk stagnation or losing sales to competitors who are optimizing every aspect of their presence. Investing in experienced marketers is not just beneficial: It’s essential for long-term success on Amazon. 

Nile Commerce provides expert help in navigating today’s ever-changing Amazon online ecommerce market. It’s what we do all day, every day. Reach out to us for a free phone consultation, and let us help you figure out the best online strategies for your brand.