Eleviam is an operator-led Amazon agency for CPG brands at $75K to $500K+/month. We have $4.7M of our own capital deployed across 40+ brands and have generated $10M+ in lifetime 3P sales revenue with 98% client retention. Beauty, wellness, consumer electronics, home and apparel are our four primary categories.
Why does it matter that an Amazon agency bills on revenue instead of ad spend?
Because the compensation structure predicts the recommendations you'll get. An agency billing 10% of ad spend earns more when your media budget grows, regardless of whether your brand grows. An agency billing 2% of gross revenue earns more only when your top line grows. Same activity, opposite incentive.
We've audited Amazon accounts where the previous agency had grown ad spend from $30K to $90K monthly with no meaningful lift in net revenue. The agency's invoice tripled. The brand's contribution margin collapsed. Both parties did exactly what their contract incentivized.
Our 2% of gross revenue plus tiered base retainer ($4K Growth, $5.5K Operator, $10K 3P Exclusive) creates the opposite pressure: if ad spend grows but revenue doesn't, our fee stays flat and we eat the inefficiency. That's why our first audit usually finds 30 to 50% of existing ad spend is wasted, and our first 60 days reduce it without cutting top-line revenue.
What does 'operator-led' actually mean for a CPG brand?
It means we are on the brand side of the P&L, not the consultant side. $4.7M of Eleviam's own capital is deployed in client inventory across 3P partnerships. We profit only on resale margin after our buy and ad costs. When the brand wins, we win. When the brand loses, we lose first.
Tom Cochrane (founder) built Eleviam from operating Amazon brands directly, not from advising others. The frameworks we use (FBA fee audits, fulfillment-mix optimization, the 12-lever margin recovery process, 3P inventory financing) were stress-tested on our own P&L before we ever applied them to clients. That's the difference between "we recommend" and "we know what happens when this fails at scale on capital we own."
What CPG categories does Eleviam fit best?
Four primary verticals: beauty and wellness ($35 to 50% gross margin, endemic reseller problem), small-form-factor consumer electronics (Buy Box challenges, race-to-bottom pricing), home and household (high seasonality, bundling and multipack opportunities), and apparel and fashion accessories (creator-channel attach to TikTok Shop).
We turn down brands outside these verticals or below 25% gross margin. The 3P Exclusive partnership requires ≥30% target ROI on capital deployed, which translates to ≥20% margin requirement at minimum. Brands below that threshold get an honest no, sometimes with a referral to an inventory loan partner if capital is the actual bottleneck.
What does the first 90 days of an Eleviam agency engagement look like?
Days 0 to 14: full account diagnostic, written 90-day operating plan with specific targets agreed by both sides. Days 15 to 60: foundation work (catalog repair, advertising restructure, listing CVR fixes, account health, brand protection). Days 60 to 90: scaling efficient spend, locking in margin gains, reviewing against the targets.
We deliver an Account Business Plan in the first two weeks. The ABP covers expected Buy Box trajectory, advertising baseline, contribution margin progression, and the 30/60/90 day milestones the engagement will be measured against. If we're not on track at day 60, we have an honest pivot conversation. We don't hide bad data and we don't drag failing engagements past the 90-day window.
What kinds of results does Eleviam typically deliver?
Typical first-90-day outcomes for CPG brands at $75K+/month: TACoS reduction of 2 to 4 percentage points, contribution margin recovery of 2 to 5 percentage points, Buy Box ownership above 90% on hero ASINs, and listing CVR improvement of 15 to 30%. These are benchmarks, not guarantees. Specific targets are written into every operating plan based on the starting state.
The reason these results compound: Amazon's organic ranking algorithm rewards listings that convert efficiently from paid traffic. When TACoS drops because we've concentrated spend on keywords that actually convert, organic rank improves on those keywords. Organic rank improvement reduces the ad spend needed to maintain volume. The flywheel runs for two to three quarters before plateauing, then we identify the next set of levers.
How does Eleviam compare to other Amazon CPG agencies?
Trivium, Cartograph, Canopy Management, MarketplaceOps, and the larger agencies (Pattern, Spreetail, SuperOrdinary, Netrush) are all real options. Different models fit different stages. Our honest comparisons are written up at /alternatives/, with a fair description of who each fits and who Eleviam fits.
Short version of where Eleviam wins: brands at $75K to $500K+/month that want operator-level execution, commercial terms aligned to revenue (not ad spend), and the option of 3P Exclusive distribution where capital is the bottleneck. Where we lose: enterprise brands at $50M+ that need a 1,700-employee global accelerator (Pattern) or brands that respond to a written guarantee offer above all else (Canopy).
Frequently asked questions
+What makes an Amazon agency a good fit specifically for CPG brands?
Three things: category fluency in CPG-specific dynamics (Buy Box loss to distributors, MAP enforcement, FBA fee profiles), commercial alignment (charging on gross revenue not ad spend so the agency wins when the brand wins), and operator experience deploying their own capital, not just managing client capital from the sidelines.
+What's the minimum revenue a CPG brand needs before hiring an Amazon agency?
$75,000/month on Amazon is the floor where a real agency engagement makes economic sense. Below that, the typical $4K to $10K/month retainer plus revenue share consumes more margin than the agency recovers. Brands at $20K to $74K/month are better served by a focused freelance operator or a 90-day consulting engagement.
+How is Eleviam different from a typical Amazon CPG agency?
Three structural differences: we charge a percentage of gross revenue (not ad spend), we have $4.7M of our own capital deployed alongside our clients in 3P partnerships, and we offer 3P Exclusive distribution as an alternative to a consulting retainer when capital is the bottleneck. The first removes incentive to inflate ad budgets. The second removes the consultant-vs-operator mismatch. The third gives capital-constrained brands a path that doesn't require external financing.
+What CPG categories does Eleviam specialize in?
Beauty and wellness, small-form-factor consumer electronics, home and household, and apparel and fashion accessories. These four verticals share the unit-economics profile that makes our model work: 25 to 50% gross margin, repeat-purchase tailwinds, and reseller or channel-control problems we can solve through capital plus operations. Brands outside these categories are evaluated case by case.
+How does Eleviam's pricing actually compare to typical Amazon CPG agencies?
Industry-typical pricing is 8 to 15% of ad spend. At $50K/month ad spend, that's $4K to $7.5K/month, and the agency makes more money when ads grow regardless of whether the brand grows. Eleviam charges roughly 2% of gross revenue plus a base retainer ($4K Growth, $5.5K Operator, $10K 3P Exclusive). At $200K/month gross revenue, that's $8K to $14K/month, but the incentive is to grow your top line, not your media budget.
+What's the typical engagement timeline for a CPG brand?
First 14 days: full diagnostic, 90-day operating plan written and agreed. Days 15 to 60: foundation work (catalog repair, advertising restructure, account health). Days 60 to 90: scaling and proof-of-concept on the agreed targets. Most brands extend the engagement at the 90-day evaluation if the targets are met. Brands that don't see directional movement by day 60 trigger an honest pivot or unwind conversation.
+Will Eleviam work with brands that already have an internal Amazon team?
Yes, and these are some of our best engagements. We typically take execution off the internal team's plate so they can focus on demand generation, brand strategy, and retail/D2C while we own the marketplace operating cadence. We define the handoff scope explicitly in the operating agreement to avoid duplicate work.