Adbot is a South African ad tech startup that uses artificial intelligence to help small businesses run online advertising campaigns efficiently. The company recently announced a seed round with plans to expand into Nigeria.
McKinsey data shows that over the past five years, the proportion of Africans purchasing goods and services online has more than doubled, representing about 10% of the continent’s total population. Additionally, online sales in Africa are growing at around 25% year-on-year, one of the highest growth rates in the world, with over 10 million people starting to buy online each year.
Adbot is a South African ad tech startup looking to help small businesses jump on the bandwagon. The startup offers AI-powered automated ad campaign management that it claims allows small businesses to serve Google and Bing ads online in as little as 10 minutes. To achieve this claim, Adbot recently raised an undisclosed seed round from Tofino Capital to expand its product to more markets, including Nigeria.
TechCabal interviewed Adbot founder and CEO Michelle Geere to learn more about the role of AI in online advertising, recession funding, the state of online advertising in Africa, and more.
TechCabal: Tell us more about Adbot and their products
Michelle Gere: We are an adtech company that provides automated online advertising campaign management using artificial intelligence for small and medium businesses in Africa. The problem we are trying to solve is that at the moment if you want to do business online in Africa you first need a credit card. I need a credit card to get my business on various platforms like Google and Facebook, but I know Africans don’t bank the same way other people do. Plus, if you want your business to grow online, you’ll have to do the campaign management yourself, which takes him an hour and a half, especially if you’re not skilled.
When it comes to online advertising, small businesses often want to take advantage of it but don’t have the means to do so. After all, they don’t and find other ways, which are almost always costly and generally inefficient compared to online advertising. To address this issue, we have built a technology that allows us to do all the management on behalf of the business owner. You don’t have to be an expert in digital marketing or Google Adwords. The technology automatically manages your campaigns so you can focus solely on growing your business.
Adbot recently closed a seed round. What has your experience been like trying to raise money when fundraising has been sluggish?
MG: Funding is difficult at this time. I think the advantage for us was that when we started talking to the Tofino Capital team, it was a great cultural fit. I have a personal passion for reducing the failure rate of SMEs in Africa, and SMEs are similarly interested in African companies contributing to the success of other businesses in Africa. So I think what really made this transaction successful is the fact that we shared the same mission. As for crossing the line, it was a very quick decision.
What challenges have you faced operating your business in South Africa, and what challenges do you foresee in the expanding market going forward?
MG: First of all, I think the challenges in South Africa are a little different than those in Nigeria, where we are planning to expand. One of the reasons we gave was expansion to other parts of Africa. Because the challenge in South Africa is that people still don’t understand automation. As time goes on, people will understand the fact that machines can do better than humans, but right now, they don’t. The launch of ChatGPT seems to be changing that mindset, which is a welcome development.
Nigeria has a very particular way of doing e-commerce, so I think the challenge will be to introduce the concept of advertising and online services. For example, e-commerce through social platforms such as Instagram is very common, while Google search is less common. The challenge is to educate the market that it can do at scale with our technology what it has done in the past.
What advantages does Adbot offer over business owners doing their own advertising campaign management?
MG: If you’re a small business owner, go directly to Google, and buy ads from Google, you need to know exactly how the platform works. This requires a considerable learning curve and requires time dedicated to self-study. Most managers don’t have that freedom. The second part you need to do if you buy ads directly from Google is that you need to log into your account daily and fund your keywords. To do this efficiently, you need to know which keywords are working and which ones are not. This also takes a lot of time because if you don’t understand what you’re doing, you can lose a lot of money for really nothing.
With Adbot, you don’t have to do all these administrative tasks. Simply fill out the one-page form where you want your ad to appear and it literally takes less than 10 minutes. AI then steps in and takes care of everything else at no extra cost.
What do you see as the future of online advertising in Africa?
MG: The future of online advertising in Africa will undoubtedly see more campaign automation, allowing managers to focus more on the day-to-day operations of their companies. Additionally, the fact that internet penetration across the continent is steadily increasing for African businesses presents a great opportunity to leverage online advertising to drive growth and profitability.
Technologies like AI can also go a long way toward enabling small businesses to use online advertising more efficiently and effectively.
*This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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