The Defining Question for Growing Brands
Amazon sellers who hit their first million in revenue eventually face the same decision: do I scale with an in-house team, or bring a specialized Amazon agency on board?
Both approaches have advantages and risks. The key is matching your growth goals, resources, and ambitions with the right strategy.
1. The Advantages of a Strong In-House Team
A capable, skilled in-house team can be a massive asset, especially when your own people work around the clock on your account without splitting attention across other brands. This allows for a deeper focus on details, niches, and nuances.
However, there's a catch: truly strong in-house teams are rare. Once the founder or original seller is no longer hands-on in daily operations, institutional knowledge tends to erode. And that's where problems begin. The deeper you go into details, the greater the risk of getting lost in optimizations that have zero meaningful impact on revenue or profit.
2. Typical Weaknesses of In-House Teams
Over time, many in-house teams develop a narrow perspective on their market. They operate within a fixed system, test too little, and frequently miss new approaches, trends, and optimization opportunities.
It becomes particularly risky when a team stays too deep in its own routine without external input. A missing outside perspective can mean missed opportunities in advertising, SEO, or pricing. This is exactly where an external agency can provide valuable perspective.
3. The Strengths of Specialized Amazon Agencies
A specialized Amazon agency brings an entirely different perspective and data foundation to the table. At PCOStudio, for example, we manage 30 to 40 large brands simultaneously, each doing five to ten million euros in annual revenue. This gives us access to significantly more data, markets, and performance benchmarks than any single in-house team could ever accumulate.
We spot trends early because we process insights from different industries and product categories every single day. This breadth of expertise is critical when developing strategies that scale long-term.
Beyond that, an agency offers the advantage of covering all relevant disciplines under one roof: Amazon PPC, SEO, content, design, conversion optimization, and strategic scaling, all from a single source.
4. Hybrid Models: The Best of Both Worlds
In many cases, a hybrid setup works best: the brand partners with an agency while maintaining an internal person who monitors key KPIs, challenges strategy decisions, and communicates closely with the agency team.
This approach combines the benefits of both models:
- Agency: access to broad expertise, data, and best practices
- In-house: fast alignment, deep brand understanding, and ownership
For many brands, this is the sweet spot with maximum efficiency while maintaining full visibility.
5. When Each Setup Makes Sense
For small sellers and brands in the early stages
It pays to handle as much as possible yourself. Handing everything to an agency too early means losing not just money, but also your understanding of your own KPIs and processes.
For brands in the growth phase
Once the leverage for growth no longer lies in daily operations but in sourcing, product development, or capital allocation, a specialized agency is the right move. It takes over performance management and gives the brand room to focus on strategic decisions.
For established brands
Above a certain revenue level, performance pressure intensifies. It's no longer just about the right campaign structure. It's about access to data, market intelligence, and best practices. An agency can deliver advantages that are nearly impossible to build internally.
6. Long-Term Outlook: Agencies Stay, But Only the Best
The market is getting tougher. Mediocre agencies are disappearing because they can no longer deliver the results brands expect. At the same time, competition is becoming more complex and data-driven.
The future belongs to those who deliver real quality and measurable outcomes.
For brands, this means: only agencies with deep expertise, clear processes, and a genuine performance focus will remain relevant long-term. Standards are rising, and that's an opportunity for sellers who value quality.
Conclusion: Quality Beats Structure
Whether in-house or agency: what matters isn't the setup, but the quality of execution. Brands that know their KPIs, test strategically, and make data-driven decisions will succeed long-term. The real question isn't whether to go in-house or external. It's who delivers the best results for your brand.
Questions about your Amazon strategy?
We manage brands with over €300 million+ in sales on Amazon. Let's talk.
