How do you find a good Amazon PPC freelancer? Agencies have been a waste of time.

Looking for some advice from experienced sellers.

We run a fairly large catalog in the apparel category. The ASIN count looks huge because of variations.

Over the past few years we’ve worked with 3–4 Amazon PPC agencies, and the experience has been very similar each time. It usually starts with a strategy presentation and promises of restructuring and scaling, but in practice very little actually changes.

Our goal has always been growth, and I’ve repeatedly told them I’m comfortable increasing ad spend, even if ACOS/TACOS temporarily rise while scaling. Instead it feels like campaigns get launched, spend increases briefly, and then everything gets scaled right back down.

It also often feels like after onboarding the account gets handed off to an overseas account manager juggling many accounts, and the attention just isn’t there.

I’m now considering working with a freelancer instead of an agency, but not sure where people actually find good ones, or if it is even a good idea. Agencies always felt safer from an accountability standpoint.

For those running Amazon ads:
Where did you find a reliable PPC freelancer, and what should I look for when vetting them?

Any advice would be appreciated.