Startup Story

Michelle Geere is the founder and CEO of Adbot. Adbot empowers all small and medium size business in Africa to successfully advertise online. After 15 years of digital advertising experience working for award winning agencies, as well as managing multiple small businesses, Michelle decided to use her expertise to start Adbot. Her experience in digital advertising coupled with the understanding of small business owner's challenges gives her a unique insight to digital solutions for SMEs.

LoA chatted to founder Michelle Geere this month to learn more about how online advertising can help small businesses to grow.

What does your company do?

Google has become so dominant that its name is a verb, and is synonymous with search. Google accounted for 92% of global search activity with their AdWords platform cemented as the digital marketing media of choice for small businesses. This is in part due to the fact that through this platform, businesses gain easy access to various markets. However, even with this offering, digital marketing is still a pain point for many small and medium-size business owners who often neither have the time nor the expertise to use the service effectively themselves. They also often face the dilemma of not being able to afford or make use of marketing agencies or freelancers, who charge by the hour for their time. This is where Adbot comes in and empowers small and medium size businesses to effectively advertise on Google. Adbot essentially functions as an artificial campaign manager, saving SME owners up to 75 hours a week, freeing up time and energy to focus on other important aspects of growing their businesses.

What inspired you to start your company?

Being in the digital advertising industry, one starts to notices that small and medium business owners really have limited options to effectively access online markets. Often their only choice is to either advertise themselves and spend hours navigating the complicated Google interface, or pay a traditional agency to do it for them. As time and money are very scarce commodities for an entrepreneur, and seeing the struggles first hand, I was inspired to create a solution that could give these entrepreneurs back their freedom and help them make use of the incredible opportunities that await them.

Why should anyone use your service or product?

It's simple - You can go live with your advertising in under 10 minutes.
It's successful - Adbot is 100% more effective than a human doing the same job.
It supports you on your journey - Adbot takes care of the admin so that you can focus on making your business a success, giving you the freedom to succeed.

Tell us a little about your team

Adbot is a small, all woman team who is obsessed with helping small business owners advertise online successfully.

Adbot is a small, all woman team who is obsessed with helping small business owners advertise online successfully.

Both personally and professionally, I want to show all woman, particularly in Africa, that they can create their own freedom, by leading by example.

Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?

I am from a banking family with grandad, dad, mom, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters working in a bank. This corporate life never appealed to me, which is why I explored the digital advertising industry for most of my career - which offered more creative and open thinking. However, it is only in my later years that I started exploring entrepreneurship. And while it was definitely scary to only start at 40, it was also certainly the best life change yet.

What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?

Both personally and professionally, I want to show all woman, particularly in Africa, that they can create their own freedom by leading by example and taking a tiny startup from Cape Town to a Series A level business in as short a time as possible.

What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?

Seeing clients prosper and make the most out of the digital space by creating products that truly helps other businesses succeed.

What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?

Be gentle with yourself - beating yourself or other people up will not make things smoother. Be open and look at things with curiosity instead of defensiveness.

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Why LoA loves it…

These days, if you want to build a successful, sustainable business that is capable of real growth, then online advertising can be a great tool to use. However, we all know that it can be daunting and time consuming to run impactful online ad campaigns, and getting help from the experts can be expensive. But Michelle Geere and her company Adbot are changing all that for SMEs. She knows from first hand experience just what entrepreneurs need when it comes to getting their businesses and brands noticed through online advertising. — Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo, Lionesses of Africa