Questions to Ask Before Hiring an Amazon Consultant

Hiring the wrong Amazon consultant is expensive in ways that go beyond the retainer fee. Poorly managed accounts lose rank, accumulate policy violations, and sometimes face suspension. Before you grant access, sign a contract, or allow changes to your listings or ad campaigns, there are specific questions you should be asking about competence, access controls, and how they back up their performance claims.

Start With Fit and Scope

Most bad consulting relationships come down to a misaligned scope. Get this in writing before anything else.

Ask: What outcomes are we hiring you for, and what is explicitly out of scope?

A good consultant can map deliverables to specific Amazon levers: catalog management, paid search, operations, brand content. Vague answers here predict vague execution later.

Ask: What marketplaces and categories do you work in most?

Category matters. Supplements, children’s products, topicals, and high-claim categories carry compliance risk that a generalist may not understand well. If your category has specific policy requirements, you want someone who has worked in it before.

Ask: What is your diagnostic process before you change anything?

You want an audit-first approach. Anyone who starts making changes without understanding the existing account structure is a risk.

Test for Actual Competence

Case studies and screenshots are easy to produce. Dig further.

Ask: Who will actually work on my account day to day?

Sales teams and account managers are often different people. Get the name and background of the person doing the work, and establish a clear escalation path.

Ask: What metrics do you use to measure success, and what do you consider noise?

Strong operators think in terms of TACoS, contribution margin, Buy Box percentage, and inventory turns. If the answer is limited to revenue or ROAS, that is a narrower view than most accounts need.

Evaluate Policy Knowledge and Risk Management

Account health issues are where bad consultants do the most damage.

Ask: How do you stay current with Amazon policy changes that affect my account?

Amazon updates policies regularly and without much notice. A credible answer includes how they monitor changes and what triggers a review of active work.

Ask: How do you handle suppressed ASINs and account health warnings?

Ask for a real example and what inputs they needed to resolve it. If they have never dealt with a suppression or appeal, that is worth knowing before you hire them.

Commercial Terms and Conflicts of Interest

Ask: How is your work billed, and what does the fee cover?

Get clarity on what is included and what is not. Ad spend, creative production, DSP management, and reimbursement work are often excluded from retainers. Know before you sign.

Ask: What conflicts of interest should I know about?

Some agencies have relationships with resellers, aggregators, or competing brands. Others receive rebates tied to ad spend levels. These are not automatic disqualifiers, but you should know about them.

Ask: What is your change-control policy for listings and ads?

Any change to a live listing or active campaign should be documented, approved, and reversible. If they do not have a formal process for this, changes will happen without your knowledge.

How to Evaluate Performance Claims

Be skeptical of guarantees. The FTC requires advertisers to have a reasonable basis for objective claims before making them, and that standard applies to how consultants represent their own results.

Ask: Do you guarantee rankings, sales, or account reinstatement?

A reputable consultant will not guarantee outcomes on a platform they do not control. If they do, require the written assumptions behind the claim: baseline metrics, methodology, timeframe, and what is outside their control.

Ask: What evidence supports your performance claims?

Good answers include a clear baseline, attribution logic, and an honest account of what else was happening in the business during the period. Weak answers are screenshots without context.

Red Flags That Should Stop the Process

Vetting a consultant thoroughly before signing protects your account, your catalog, and your margins. The brands that get the most out of these relationships are the ones that set clear expectations on scope, access, and accountability from day one. Do that work upfront and you avoid the much more expensive work of cleaning up after a bad hire.