AC2 Sales / Guides
Every fee structure tells an account manager which number to optimize when you are not in the room. Before comparing rates, look at what each model pays them to do with your money.
When a brand hires an Amazon partner, the contract usually settles into one of four fee structures: a percentage of advertising spend, a percentage of total revenue, a flat monthly retainer, or a base fee paired with a share of growth above an agreed baseline. A fifth option — selling the inventory at wholesale to an authorized reseller — removes the fee entirely.
Brands tend to compare these on what the monthly invoice looks like in month one. The better question is what the account looks like in month six, once the fee formula has quietly shaped every bidding, catalog and restock decision.
Scroll sideways to see every column →
| Model | How you are billed | What it quietly rewards |
|---|---|---|
| % of ad spend | 10%–15% of monthly PPC spend, often above a minimum | Spending more of your ad budget, especially on high-volume branded terms you would have won organically. |
| % of gross revenue | 5%–10% of totalOrdered Product Sales | Chasing top-line volume via coupons, price drops, and unprofitable ad spend while ignoring per-SKU margin. |
| Flat monthly retainer | $3,500–$10,000+ fixed per month | Predictable billing, but low urgency once setup is finished unless deliverables are explicitly tracked. |
| Base + growth above baseline | Modest base + % of revenue above your prior run rate | Growing the channel past where it already sat, without taxing the sales you brought to the table. |
| Wholesale buyout | $0 fee — partner buys stock via purchase order | Holding retail price up and only advertising where the unit economics actually clear. |
Charging a percentage of advertising spend is a carryover from traditional media buying, where a agency placed television or print budgets and took a commission. On Amazon, where paid search and organic rank share the exact same shelf, that incentive works against the brand almost immediately.
The fastest way for an agency billed on ad spend to increase its own fee is to bid aggressively on your brand name and push budget into your highest-velocity SKUs — regardless of whether those SKUs have the margin to absorb a 28% ACoS. Your total ad spend climbs, the agency's invoice climbs with it, and your net contribution per unit falls.
A percentage of total Amazon revenue sounds better aligned until you ask two questions: what happens to the revenue you were already doing before you hired them, and what happens when top-line revenue grows via discounting?
If your brand already sells $80,000 a month on Amazon and you sign a 7% gross-revenue contract, you are paying $5,600 a month before a single listing has been touched. The agency gets paid on demand your brand already built.
A 20% clip coupon or an aggressive Sponsored Products push will raise Ordered Product Sales in Business Reports immediately. If the contract pays on gross sales, the agency collects a bonus on units that lost money after FBA fees.
When we run a managed account, we split the fee into two parts so neither side is gaming the other:
A traditional agency that charges a flat $4,000–$6,000 monthly retainer on a $20,000 account eats 20%+ of gross sales before Amazon even collects referral and FBA fees. That math never works.
Instead, we scope our fee to your catalog size: for focused emerging brands launching 3–5 hero SKUs with strong DTC or retail traction, we offer a streamlined managed tier (or a one-time launch build credited toward ongoing management). And when a larger catalog’s unit economics favor purchase orders over a management fee, we will tell you upfront and recommend our wholesale track instead.
If you do not want to audit agency invoices, manage ad budgets, or carry FBA inventory risk, selling to an authorized reseller at wholesale replaces the fee conversation entirely.
On the wholesale side, we send you purchase orders, take title to the inventory, and pay our own referral fees, FBA fulfillment, storage and advertising out of the margin between your wholesale price and the Amazon retail price. If we overspend on ads or misjudge inventory, that comes out of our pocket, not yours. We put the full per-unit math comparing wholesale against running 3P yourself on Vendor Central vs. Seller Central.
Because the agency gets paid more when you spend more, regardless of whether the additional spend clears your unit economics. Bidding aggressively on branded keywords or low-margin SKUs raises agency billing immediately while reducing what the brand keeps.
Your trailing twelve-month or seasonal run rate before the engagement begins. You should not pay a performance share on revenue the brand was already generating before the agency arrived.
When your wholesale margin is healthy and you would rather receive purchase orders than manage FBA inventory, ad budgets and Seller Support — or when a large catalog does not yet justify a full-catalog retainer (for focused 3–5 SKU emerging brands, we offer a streamlined managed tier).
On the wholesale track, we charge nothing — we buy your inventory outright and earn our margin when it sells. On the managed track, we charge a monthly base scoped to catalog complexity plus a share of revenue above your agreed baseline, and never a percentage of ad spend.
Send us 1–3 ASINs or your catalog size. We will come back with a written breakdown of what the unit economics support — whether that is a managed engagement, a wholesale partnership, or keeping it in-house.
Get a written assessmentOr book a 15-minute intro call with Abraham and skip the form.