Overview

Growing a successful Amazon agency from a solo startup into a multi-million dollar business is a rare feat in the ultra-competitive e-commerce arena. Many Amazon agencies launch every year, but few break through the ceiling beyond the first million in revenue. So how do you scale an Amazon agency to $20M in annual recurring revenue (ARR) – and do it in just five years? This article distills the experiences and strategies shared by Steven Pope (Founder of My Amazon Guy), who grew his Amazon-focused agency from zero to $20M ARR, as discussed in a recent webinar with James Dihardjo (Co-Founder of MerchantSpring). We’ll explore the key growth strategies, operational best practices, and leadership lessons that Amazon agency owners can apply to scale up their own businesses. Prepare for an expert-yet-accessible deep dive into Amazon agency growth, with insights on everything from lead generation and content marketing to people management and process improvement.

From Laid Off to Launching an Agency

Steven Pope’s journey began not in triumph, but in a setback. In 2017, Steven was unexpectedly laid off from a corporate job where he earned a comfortable salary. Instead of seeing it as a defeat, he used it as motivation. “For 48 hours, I asked myself if I had peaked. Then I said, forget that – I’m going to make myself a company,” Steven recalls. He decided to leverage his Amazon marketplace expertise and start a consulting agency. The name My Amazon Guy came almost by accident – Steven’s wife noted that clients would often say, “Talk to my Amazon guy,” so the phrase became his brand. Within 48 hours of a simple LinkedIn announcement that he was open for business, Steven landed his first client, a supplements brand (which, notably, is still a client six years later). This scrappy start underscores a key point: it’s not hard to start an agency in this space – Amazon is vast, and many brands need help. The real challenge is how to scale an Amazon agency beyond the initial clients and early revenue plateaus.

 Hitting $1M ARR: Warm Outreach and Early Hustle

My Amazon Guy’s growth in the first year was brisk – reaching about $361,000 in revenue by the end of 2018 with a handful of clients and just a few employees. By the end of year two, the agency crossed the $1.1M mark in ARR. How did Steven achieve what many call the “easy” part of growth (going from 0 to 7-figures)? The strategy was straightforward: warm outreach and hustle. In the beginning, Steven personally reached out to his professional network, former colleagues, friends, and anyone who might need Amazon marketing services. He actively posted on LinkedIn and other social channels to announce his new venture and share Amazon selling tips.

This generated word-of-mouth referrals and inbound inquiries from folks who already knew him or had a direct connection – the warm leads. For a new agency, tapping into existing relationships can be the fastest path to signing your first 5–10 clients. Steven also wasn’t shy about rolling up his sleeves on early client work to deliver results and build case studies that would fuel credibility. The lesson for reaching your first million: leverage trust and personal connections, and be prepared to personally sell your services. In these early days, the founder often is the sales department.

However, sustaining growth beyond that point requires expanding beyond who you already know. Steven knew that once those low-hanging fruits were picked, he’d need a scalable way to attract new business from the wider market of Amazon sellers. That’s where content and thought leadership came into play.

Content Marketing & Thought Leadership: From $1M to $10M

After hitting the initial revenue milestone, Steven doubled down on content marketing as the engine for further growth – a strategy that would catapult My Amazon Guy from a $1M business to an 8-figure agency. He started creating Amazon how-to videos on YouTube, publishing blog posts, and sharing educational content about Amazon SEO, listing optimisation, and Amazon PPC management. In fact, Steven describes My Amazon Guy as “an education company that happens to be an agency.” By freely sharing Amazon best practices and insider tips, he built a reputation as a thought leader among Amazon FBA sellers and brand owners. This content-first approach not only helped the community but also served as a magnet for new clients – many agency leads came through organic discovery of Steven’s videos or articles.

One early example illustrates the power of content: On day one of his agency, Steven filmed a YouTube tutorial on creating an Amazon Brand Store. That video initially got only about 50 views, but it was one of the first of its kind. He even included his personal cell phone number in the video.

“I was getting calls about how to make a brand store for two years,” Steven says. “One video generated me 100 phone calls.”

In other words, a single piece of niche content produced a steady trickle of leads that converted into business. It’s a testament to the long-tail value of content on platforms like YouTube. As Steven puts it, “If you’re not making content, you’ve got to start – even if it only gets 50 views at first.” Over time, those videos and posts compound in reach. By year three, My Amazon Guy’s inbound leads and brand recognition skyrocketed (helped by the e-commerce boom during COVID-19). Steven likes to quote the adage, “Every overnight success takes a decade.” Indeed, his “sudden” rise was built on years of consistent content creation and Amazon thought leadership that finally hit critical mass around 2020. The agency grew to $2.5M in revenue in that third year and then doubled to $6M by year four, fueled largely by this content-driven engine.

For Amazon agency owners, the takeaway is clear: investing in content marketing (blogs, videos, webinars, social media) can establish your credibility and draw in a wide audience of Amazon sellers searching for expertise. Many agencies focus only on direct sales, but My Amazon Guy proved that becoming a go-to educational resource in the Amazon space can be a game-changer for lead generation. Content has a terrific ROI – Steven notes that among the four main growth methods (warm outreach, content marketing, cold outreach, and paid advertising), content offers some of the best returns for the effort. It’s essentially organic SEO for your agency: prospective clients find you because you’ve already provided value and demonstrated knowledge. Not every agency founder is comfortable being on camera or writing articles, but if you can embrace it, content can propel you well beyond the $1M mark. 

Scaling to $20M: Outbound Sales and Systems

Reaching $10M ARR is an accomplishment few agencies attain – but Steven didn’t stop there. In 2023, My Amazon Guy crossed $20M in annual revenue, roughly doubling year-over-year again. How was the jump from $8-10M to $20M achieved? The answer: layering in outbound sales at scale. As Steven explained, after saturating warm leads and building a strong inbound funnel from content, the next lever was proactive outreach to strangers – think cold calls, cold emails, and direct sales campaigns targeting brands that fit their ideal client profile.

He built a team of Business Development Representatives (BDRs) to systematically reach out to Amazon sellers and e-commerce brands that hadn’t heard of My Amazon Guy before. This classic outbound sales motion added a new pillar of lead generation on top of the content marketing. Steven candidly admits he keeps the exact details of his cold outreach strategy as a “trade secret,” but it clearly worked: it opened a path to acquire many more clients at a rapid pace, fueling the climb to $20M.

However, outbound sales can be a numbers game with lower conversion rates, so it’s typically more resource-intensive than warm referrals or inbound marketing. The key is having good data, a clear sales process, and persistence. My Amazon Guy’s success here suggests that Amazon agencies looking to scale should consider investing in a small outbound sales team or utilising tools to reach new prospects once other channels plateau. By combining content marketing (which builds trust and inbound interest) with targeted outreach (which captures those who didn’t organically find you), Steven was able to accelerate client acquisition dramatically.

Looking ahead, Steven forecasts that to reach the next milestone (say, $50M ARR), agencies may need to incorporate paid advertising and advanced technology into their growth strategy. Paid ads (Google, LinkedIn, Facebook) can amplify reach further, though Steven cautions that the ROI on paid ads tends to be the lowest of the growth methods – meaning you have to spend significantly to get returns.

Nevertheless, at a certain scale, paid marketing can make sense to tap new markets or reinforce your brand. Likewise, leveraging technology (such as marketing automation, AI tools, etc.) becomes crucial as you handle hundreds of clients. Steven’s journey shows a progression: warm outreach (high ROI but not scalable) → content marketing (high ROI and scalable) → cold outreach (medium ROI, scalable with effort) → paid ads and tech (lower ROI, but necessary for very large scale). Agency owners can evaluate where they are in this curve and allocate resources accordingly.

People and Culture: The Core of Agency Growth

While marketing tactics were vital to growth, Steven emphasises that the foundation of scaling an agency is people.

In his words: “Every business needs three things: product, process, and people. In agencies, people are the most important.”

Offering Amazon services is a people-driven business – account managers, analysts, PPC specialists, designers, and others all contribute directly to client success. Steven admits he never expected to have 500+ employees (which is where My Amazon Guy is at today); managing such a large team wasn’t on his radar in the beginning. But he learned that to keep up with client growth, he had to recruit and train talent aggressively. One of the boldest moves was in 2021, when Steven realised the agency needed a lot more hands on deck. He instructed his HR team to hire 100 interns in 30 days – a directive that was met with disbelief initially. It took repeated insistence and leadership resolve to make it happen, but they ultimately pulled it off. “People thought I was crazy… but after the third meeting, they got it. We hired 100 interns in 2021,” Steven says. These interns went through training, and many graduated into full-time roles. In fact, over the past few years, the agency has hired at least 250 interns with zero prior Amazon experience, turning them into skilled account managers and specialists.

How do you turn raw recruits into competent Amazon account executives quickly? My Amazon Guy’s answer was to build an internal training academy called MAG School (Mag-school.com). This is a suite of courses covering Amazon PPC, SEO, design, catalogue troubleshooting and more – essentially codifying the agency’s processes and best practices into a curriculum. New hires were required to complete several courses and pass exams before working on client accounts.

This ensured a baseline level of skill and filtered out those who couldn’t make the cut. The training culture created what Steven calls “an environment of learning” that allowed the company to hire for attitude and aptitude, not just experience. In an industry where seasoned Amazon experts can be hard to find (and expensive to hire), this grow-your-own-talent approach was a competitive advantage. Amazon agency owners can take a page from this playbook by developing structured training programs or documentation to rapidly onboard junior employees or interns. Not only does it fill your talent pipeline, it also creates a culture where continuous improvement is valued – something your clients will ultimately benefit from as well.

Another interesting aspect of My Amazon Guy’s culture is the concept of “graduation.” Instead of treating employee departures as taboo, Steven frames it as graduation – meaning the person has learned and grown as much as they can with the agency and is now moving on to the next chapter of their career. This reframing turns the often high turnover in agency life into a positive narrative. Steven is notably transparent about the reality that not everyone will stay forever. The Amazon services industry is fast-paced and can be a burnout environment; many team members eventually pursue other opportunities.

By openly acknowledging this and even celebrating alumni, the company maintains good relations and a reputation for being a career launchpad. “If an employee has nothing left to learn from me, I encourage them to graduate,” Steven says. He takes pride that many who “graduate” from MAG go on to higher roles elsewhere in the Amazon ecosystem – it reflects well on the training they received. For agency owners, the lesson here is to embrace employee development even if it means some will leave. Investing in your people’s growth creates a strong employer brand and attracts hungry new talent to backfill the ones who move on.

Finally, Steven highlights that running a large team requires a human touch and empathy in leadership. Agency life isn’t just about KPIs and client metrics – it’s also about managing personal dynamics at scale. Steven shared how he often found himself sending flowers every week to employees who lost a family member, or coaching team members through personal challenges and career decisions. “I didn’t expect that when I started the company,” he admits, noting that these human moments are part of building a real organisation. The takeaway: scaling an agency will test your people management and leadership skills in ways you might not anticipate. Success isn’t only about client ROI; it’s also measured in the strength and loyalty of the team you build.

Process and Adaptability: Reorganising on the Fly

Rapid growth can be a double-edged sword for operations. As an agency scales from 10 to 50 to 200+ clients, the internal processes and team structure that worked in the past will inevitably start breaking. Steven’s philosophy was to be proactive and ruthless in reorganising to stay ahead of chaos. In fact, My Amazon Guy undergoes some form of departmental reorganisation roughly every quarter. Whether it’s the account management hierarchy, the org chart for the design and SEO teams, or the sales and marketing alignment, Steven regularly reshuffles roles and teams to eliminate bottlenecks.

His rule is to execute reorgs extremely fast – usually within 48 hours from decision to implementation – to avoid protracted uncertainty that can hurt morale. “If you talk about a reorg or layoffs and take too long, it leaks and causes panic,” he notes. Instead, he evaluates where the breakdowns are (for example, a single PPC director overseeing 60+ accounts – too many) and swiftly makes changes, such as appointing additional directors so that each oversees a manageable 40 accounts or so. By course-correcting quickly, they maintain service quality for clients. Steven openly says, “I’d like to see anyone grow from $0 to $20M in five years without reorganising at least once a quarter – it’s necessary.” In practice, agency owners should not be afraid to realign teams, introduce new management layers, or revise processes as they grow. What worked at 10 clients likely won’t at 100 clients. Agility in operations is as important as agility in strategy.

Another process lesson from Steven’s journey is knowing when to bring in better systems. For a surprisingly long time, My Amazon Guy managed client tracking and reporting in basic spreadsheets – even up to 120 clients, they were using Google Sheets as a makeshift CRM and reporting tool. This “bootstrap” approach saved money early on, but by year three, it became untenable to juggle hundreds of clients and team members without a robust system. So, in 2020, Steven invested in HubSpot as the agency CRM to formalise sales and client management. He also sought ways to automate and streamline client reporting, which had been a 100% manual effort by his staff each week.

Here’s where the webinar host’s product comes in: Steven partnered with MerchantSpring – a client reporting and analytics platform specifically built for agencies – to take over the heavy lifting of aggregating Amazon performance data. The result was a huge efficiency gain.

“We were spending 50 hours a week doing reporting in Google Sheets, and it went down to push-button after onboarding MerchantSpring,” Steven says.

He was admittedly skeptical at first whether any tool could handle the scale (having “broken” many software tools with the agency’s demands), but MerchantSpring’s platform was designed for agencies managing multiple Amazon seller accounts, and it delivered. By removing cumbersome manual reporting, Steven’s team could reallocate their time to higher-value activities like strategy and client communication. The broader point for agencies: as you scale, invest in tools and technology that save your team time and reduce errors.  Whether it’s a CRM for sales, project management software for workflows, or a specialised reporting solution like MerchantSpring, the right tech stack is essential to maintain quality and profitability at scale. 

Managing Client Churn and Retention

One of the most surprising truths Steven shared – something many agency owners don’t discuss openly – is the reality of client churn in the Amazon services industry. Steven revealed that the average full-service client stays with My Amazon Guy for about 8–9 months. In fact, if you look at a 12-month span, he essentially replaces his entire client roster more than once in that period. That sounds alarming, but Steven isn’t fazed by it, because it’s symptomatic of the broader Amazon seller landscape.

Many brands that start selling on Amazon never make it past year two; some run out of cash, some get wiped out by competitors or Amazon policy changes. An Amazon agency can do a great job and still lose clients simply because those clients go out of business or pull back on marketing. Steven estimates roughly half of the clients who leave My Amazon Guy do so due to their own financial issues or because they decide to exit the Amazon channel entirely (not because of dissatisfaction with the agency). He even discovered later that many of those businesses ultimately failed or stopped selling on Amazon. In other words, high churn is baked into the Amazon agency model.

How does My Amazon Guy thrive despite this churn? The key is having a strong sales pipeline and marketing machine, continuously bringing in new clients to replace those that churn. Steven focuses on sales and growth (“filling the bucket”) as much as on retention. Of course, delivering good results and service is important – and many clients have stayed for years – but he’s realistic that an agency’s retention rate might plateau due to factors beyond your control. Some boutique agencies boast lower churn, but Steven cautions that often those are agencies undercharging or operating at very low margins to keep clients on board.

His agency, by contrast, maintains healthy pricing and an average net profit margin of 40%+, which is extraordinarily high for the industry. That profitability allows reinvestment into growth. His frank advice is to not fear churn as long as you have your unit economics and lead flow figured out. In practice, this might mean segmenting your clients by size and giving extra attention to the ones with long-term potential, while not overextending resources on those likely to churn anyway. It also means always be marketing – don’t take your foot off the gas when you have a good month, because in an Amazon agency, you might lose a few clients the next month unexpectedly.

Steven’s transparency on this topic is refreshing:

“It’s not that our service is bad – it’s that the market is tough. I tell prospective clients the truth that selling on Amazon isn’t easy or guaranteed, and some hire us because of that honesty.”

The bottom line for agencies is to normalise churn to an extent and plan for it in your growth strategy. Aim to deliver great results, but have a strategy to continuously acquire new business, as the pool of Amazon brands is ever-renewing.

Transparency and Leadership Style

Throughout his journey, Steven Pope has practised a form of “radical transparency.” He openly shares his revenue figures, admits mistakes, and even publicises things like the churn data that others might shy away from. This transparency has become part of his brand and leadership style.

“Radical transparency attracts other people who also like radical transparency,” he notes.

By being candid about the challenges of scaling (internally with employees and externally with clients/peers), he builds trust. Agency owners can consider how transparency might differentiate them in a crowded market – whether it’s being honest about what services cost, or admitting when you don’t have all the answers. Clients ultimately appreciate honesty, and team members are more likely to trust a leader who doesn’t sugarcoat realities. Steven’s leadership style also involves a lot of passion and persuasion.

Despite being an introvert at heart, he learned to become a compelling communicator (partly from a background in competitive debate and devouring dozens of sales books). Scaling an agency will push you to inspire and sometimes rally the troops through tough times – whether it’s convincing your HR team that “yes, we really do need 100 interns in 30 days,” or persuading a skeptical client to try a new strategy. The ability to share a vision and persuade others to march toward it is an underrated skill for agency growth. If it doesn’t come naturally, invest in developing it, as Steven did.

Finally, a word on leveraging your network and community. Steven grew his personal brand alongside the agency. With over 47,000 LinkedIn followers and a popular YouTube channel, he became a well-known figure in the Amazon seller community. This personal brand equity adds huge value to the business – for instance, it opens doors to partnerships, speaking opportunities, and press that can further elevate the agency’s profile. Agency owners should think about how they (or key team members) can establish themselves as influencers or experts in their niche.

Whether it’s posting regularly on LinkedIn or sharing case studies at industry events, being visible and vocal can pay dividends. Steven even turned one of his sales executives, Jon, into a micro-influencer focused on Amazon Conversion Rate optimisation (the employee posted daily insights and built a following, which later led to him getting headhunted by a software company). This shows that encouraging your team to build their personal brands can benefit your agency (through increased reach and credibility), even if it means someday those individuals might “graduate” to other ventures. It’s a mindset of abundance and mentorship, rather than fear of talent leaving.

Conclusion & Call to Action

Scaling an Amazon agency to $20M is no small accomplishment – it requires strategic evolution at each stage and a willingness to invest in what truly drives growth (people, process, and marketing). To recap the key takeaways for agency owners and Amazon professionals aiming for high growth:

• Leverage Warm Leads First: In the early days, tap your network and actively seek referrals. You are your own best salesperson initially.
  
  
• Invest Heavily in Content and Education: Differentiating your agency through content marketing and thought leadership can generate a steady inbound pipeline and elevate your brand in the Amazon seller community.
  
  
• Scale Outbound Sales when Inbound Plateaus: Don’t be afraid to add cold outreach (calls, emails, LinkedIn prospecting) once you’ve mined the warm leads. A dedicated outbound effort can unlock the next level of client acquisition.
  
  
• Build a Talent Engine: Hire for potential and cultural fit, then train skills through a structured program. A learning-focused culture will supply the specialists you need as you grow.
  
  
• Be Adaptable with Processes: Continuously refine your organisational structure and tools. What worked for 5 clients won’t work for 50 – anticipate growing pains and address them quickly (even if that means reorgs or new systems like a CRM or reporting platform).
  
  
• Accept and Manage Churn: Amazon brands come and go; design your business with a strong marketing and sales engine to thrive despite client turnover. Be transparent and honest – it builds trust with both clients and team members.
  
  
• Lead with Vision and Transparency: Your mindset and leadership will set the tone. Embrace transparency, celebrate your team’s growth, and cultivate a reputation as an agency that genuinely wants clients (and employees) to succeed, whether with you or beyond.
  
  

By learning from someone who’s navigated this journey, you can apply these agency best practices to your own business. Whether your goal is to hit your first million or to join the 8-figure club, remember that scaling is a marathon, not a sprint – “every overnight success takes a decade.” But with the right strategies and mindset, you can accelerate your growth in a sustainable way.

To dive deeper into these insights and hear more candid lessons from agency leaders, be sure to watch the full webinar on demand. If you’re looking to scale your Amazon agency, consider how tools like MerchantSpring can lighten your operational load (reporting, in particular) so you can focus on growth. Subscribe to our newsletter for more thought leadership content on Amazon and agency management, and feel free to contact us to see how MerchantSpring’s platform can support your journey to $20M and beyond. Good luck, and happy scaling!