The Amazon Agency Audit: What I Look for Before I Recommend a Change

An Amazon agency audit should not begin with a list of things to change. It should begin with a clear picture of what is actually happening—and what the business can support.

I start with the commercial reality: contribution margin, inventory, buy-box consistency, offer structure, and the products that are truly available to sell. Advertising cannot rescue an offer that is unavailable, uncompetitive, or built on weak economics.

Then I look for the distance between reporting and action. Are search-term decisions tied to the P&L? Are bids being managed with an inventory view? Does the catalog accurately represent the product? Are rankings being protected while the team fixes the operational issues behind them?

A useful audit finds the decision bottleneck, not just the visible inefficiency. Sometimes the right answer is to cut waste. Sometimes it is to protect a campaign, improve a listing, repair a variation, or wait until inventory is ready.

That is the standard: recommend the next action only after the evidence supports it—and make sure the recommendation improves the business, not merely the report.