On Tuesday night at the Sandton Convention Centre, while South Africa’s most powerful women gathered to celebrate business excellence, something unexpected happened. Adbot, a Cape Town based AI marketing platform walked away with the Top Women Business in ICT & E-commerce award, beating finalists such as Vodacom and Smollan. If you’re thinking this is another feel-good underdog story about scrappy entrepreneurs with big dreams, think again.
This is a story about conversion rates. And in the marketing automation business, results are the only truth that matters. The Standard Bank Top Women Awards isn’t some niche startup competition.
It’s the platform where the Chairman of Standard Bank talks about exporting African culture to the world. Where the Minister of Water and Sanitation speaks about women directing the core choices in our society. Where the CEOs of the JSE and Woolworths collect their trophies.
Read Full Article on Daily Maverick
[paywall]
And there, among these institutional giants, was Michelle Geere accepting an award for a business that’s raised R10 million total – pocket change compared to what corporate giants spend on solving problems. “To hear it still conjures a feeling of awe, pride, relief that we are doing the right thing,” Geere told Daily Maverick. “But this business was built by all the businesses in South Africa who rolled the dice on Adbot.
Brave solo marketers and business owners who decided they weren’t going to continue on the ordinary path. They chose us.” Here’s what she’s not saying: some of the finalists offer similar services. But Adbot is getting the results.
And when you’re automating Google Ads for businesses that can’t afford to waste a single rand, that difference isn’t academic – it’s existential. While corporate South Africa was pitching huge monthly retainers to enterprise clients, Geere and her team were solving a problem most people didn’t think was worth solving: how does a one-person marketing department compete with companies that have teams of twenty? Adbot now serves over 2,000 businesses across Africa.
There’s another wrinkle to this story. Adbot recently released South Africa’s firstindustry-specific benchmarks for Cost Per Click (CPC) and Click-Through Rates (CTR)for Google search performance. Why does this matter?
Because until now, South African businesses were making million-rand marketing decisions based on UK and US benchmarks that don’t reflect our market dynamics at all. What works in London doesn’t translate directly to Johannesburg. What converts in New York might fail spectacularly in Cape Town.
“International benchmarks consistently misled our clients,” Geere says. “Having local data aligns the expectation and spending to what is achievable in country.”
[/paywall]
