US-Based vs. Offshore Amazon Agency: What Actually Matters

Some Amazon agencies sell “US-based” as their main advantage. Others quietly run most of their work overseas and don’t mention it. Neither tells you much about whether your account will be run well.

We’ll be direct about ours: most of our specialist team is based in the Philippines. Here’s what we think actually matters, and why we tell people up front.

What location does and doesn’t change

What it changes:

• Cost. Offshore teams cost less, which can mean more hands on your account.
• Working hours. Time zones can be a problem or an advantage. Depending on the hours a team keeps, overlap with your day or overnight coverage are both possible. Ask.
• Communication style. Worth testing on the first call.

What it doesn’t change:

• Amazon’s rules and tools are the same wherever someone logs in from.
• Skill. Excellent and poor account managers exist in every country.
• Whether someone senior owns your strategy.

The things that matter more than location

1. Stability. Does the same person handle your account in month nine as in month one? Agencies that rotate people lose your catalog knowledge every time someone leaves. Most of our specialists have been with us four years or more, and the team has only grown.
2. Named ownership. Is there a small, named group assigned to you, or a shared queue? We assign a pod to each account and keep it there.
3. Senior access. Can you reach the people who set strategy? At Symtry, David Ledbetter leads the first call and the strategy, Troy Marchand is in the work behind it, and you can reach either directly.
4. Transparency. Will they tell you who’s on your account and what hours they cover before you sign? We’ll give you names and working hours on the first call.
5. Incentives. We’re paid a share of the revenue we manage, never a cut of ad spend, so we only do well when your channel does. Our team’s cost structure is part of what makes that model work. See flat fee vs. ad spend vs. revenue share.

Why we say it up front

We’d rather you hear it from us on the first call than notice it in month three. If a US-only team is a hard requirement for you, that’s a legitimate choice, and we’ll say we’re not the fit.

Frequently asked questions

Written by

Troy Marchand, CEO

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