A Cape Town AI startup just won one of South Africa's most prestigious business awards

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 award nobody expected

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.

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.

The problem everyone else ignored

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?

The answer, it turns out, wasn't about having more resources. It was about using AI to automate the tactical execution that eats up 80% of a solo marketer's time. All the tedious, essential work that keeps a business owner up at 11pm checking whether their R5,000 ad spend is actually generating the R25,000 in orders they need to survive.

Adbot now serves over 2,000 businesses across Africa.

The data nobody else collected

There's another wrinkle to this story. Adbot recently released South Africa's first industry-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."

Financial and Insurance Services in South Africa achieve average click-through rates of 11.3%. Health and Social Work follows at 10.4%. These aren't international averages adjusted for local conditions. This is actual data from actual South African businesses running actual campaigns.

It's the kind of unglamorous, methodical work that doesn't generate headlines but makes the difference between a business scaling up or shutting down.

The next phase

So what happens when a startup wins a major business award by beating giant corporations with hundreds of employees?

If you're Geere, you write a letter to your customers saying the trophy belongs to them. Then you get back to work.

"This is not the end. This is fuel that will keep us moving forward," she says. "The next phase is a promise that we will keep evolving, keep making marketing accessible to our businesses, and keep delivering what you need."

A commitment to keep solving the problem they started with: how do you level the playing field for businesses that can't afford huge retainers but still need to compete?

And if you happen to beat the giants along the way? Well, that's just a bonus. DM