TheShortlist Report

Measured research on who gets recommendedLatest reading

Counts, not opinions · No paid placement · Method published

Coverage

Amazon agencies

13 measured reports, drawn from 3007 AI responses. 82 firms counted.

3,007Responses measured
13Questions reported
82Firms counted
Last measured

When an agency publishes its own “best agency” list

Some sources used in these answers are not independent directories or editorial rankings. They are comparison pages published by an Amazon agency—or by a company selling an alternative—and they include or position the publisher itself. That ownership is important context when an AI assistant uses the page to answer a buyer's question.

Canopy Management is a clear example. Its “Best Full-Service Amazon Agencies” page ranks Canopy first, supports that placement with Canopy's own performance claims, and ends with a Canopy sales pitch. The page is credited to a Canopy SEO and GEO strategist. In this test, ChatGPT cited that page in 125 separate answers across 21 neutral buyer questions.

PublisherExample publisher-owned pageAnswers citing itQuestions reached
EpiniumBest Amazon Agencies21324 of 70
SalesDuoAmazon Brand Management Agency Comparison13125 of 70
Canopy ManagementBest Full-Service Amazon Agencies12521 of 70
PPC JumpstartBest Amazon PPC Management Agencies10414 of 70
MarknologyBest Amazon Agencies for Growing Brands7816 of 70
Olifant DigitalBest Amazon PPC Agencies6511 of 70
Amazon Growth LabBest Full-Service Amazon Agencies6315 of 70

How this was tested. We counted distinct ChatGPT answers that cited each example page among 3,288 answers to 70 category-neutral Amazon-agency questions, observed August 8–September 8, 2026. Each page was manually checked for publisher ownership and self-inclusion or self-positioning. These counts show source use, not causation: they do not prove that a page made ChatGPT recommend its publisher. They do show why the owner of a “best agencies” page should be disclosed when that page is used as evidence.

The tactic can be even more explicit. Olifant Digital's page ranks Olifant first and offers controls to copy the page as Markdown or open it in ChatGPT and Claude. That does not make the information false, but it makes the page's commercial purpose and intended machine audience material to evaluating the source.

Reports

Firms counted in Amazon agencies

Every firm named often enough to clear the reporting threshold in at least one report above, with what the answers describe it doing.