Co-founders and CEOs of Flow, Dan Levy and Gil Sperling have extensive experience in Adtech and, over the last four years, have diversified Flow's offering to reach a variety of businesses.
This includes financial services, retail, e-commerce, MLMs and more beyond South Africa's borders, gaining an established presence in over 20 regions, says the company.
Before launching Flow, Sperling and Levy were CEOs of Popimedia, Africa's largest Adtech and performance marketing company, which they sold to Publicis, the third-largest communications group globally. As dynamic entrepreneurs, they've reshaped the Adtech landscape, expanding Flow's cutting-edge platform to diverse industries, the company adds.
According to Flow, the company set out to solve the fragmentation of the real estate sector — where agents weren't able to advertise themselves at scale the same way a brand would because they didn't have the time, skill or resources.
"Through this, we learned that the application of Flow's solution extends far beyond just the real estate sector, and that's how we started transitioning into other sectors," says Sperling.
To support this transition and Flow's growth journey, the company has created three distinct pillars:
- Flow Connect
- Flow Enterprise, and
- Flow Data.
These pillars showcase Flow's evolution as a leading 'data-powered' Adtech provider that boosts reach and revenue, says the company.
"Whether brands are looking for hyper-targeted campaigns, a portal is specifically seeking revenue growth, or a network business wants to scale its reach, Flow has a solution," says Levy.
According to the company, Flow Connect is designed for network businesses such as brokers, real estate agents and franchisees to leverage scalable technology while connecting with high-intent audiences where they frequently go: social media.
"By implementing automated, on-brand social media campaigns across multiple channels, a business can attain a competitive edge in its industry," Sperling says.
"Any agent can become a marketing pro in any industry. For example, insurance brokers can now market their services on social media; franchise businesses can align advertising effortlessly, human resources and MLMs, among others, can take their digital presence to new heights. Consider retailers as another example, offering their suppliers a way to target shoppers off-site. The possibilities are endless," adds Sperling.
The company says Flow Enterprise aims to enhance revenue streams for portals, marketplaces and CRM businesses so that they can establish indispensability to their clients and significantly increase revenue and traffic. This can be achieved through automated featured listing ads, which are published directly on various social media platforms, driving people right back to the portal.
Flow adds that retargeting users who have visited a portal and finding them on social media is the secret sauce. Flow's functionality ensures data is handled securely, with care and expert segmentation, including factors like:
- demography
- geography, and
- price point.
These factors ensure the right adverts reach the right people, every time.
"This value-added product seamlessly bundles into existing subscriptions. Any marketplace portal or CRM business or anyone who is facilitating sellers' listings can embed the Flow platform to stay ahead of their competition and drive even more traffic from relevant buyers," says Sperling.
Flow's fully white-labelled offering allows for customisation and ensures agents and representatives of a business are on the same page, using the same branding and making the most of their marketing budgets, according to the company.
Flow has run over 5000 successful campaigns and reached over one billion impressions on its retargeted ads to date.
"Our marketplace partners are seeing an up to 400% increase in listing views from boosted off-site ads powered by Flow," Sperling adds.
Through Flow Data, businesses can strategically access exclusive, hyper-targeted audiences to enhance their media spend, directly reaching and engaging high-intent buyers' 'first-party data', says Flow.
"Conversion rates on retargeted social media adverts skyrocket by a staggering 50% when fuelled by combined customised audiences and 'first-party data'," Levy says. "Using a 'first-party data' strategy can assist leading brands, CMOs and media buyers, among others to amplify return on investment."
Flow Data also allows clients to get ahead of the cookie-less world Google is creating later this year through the removal of third-party cookies, Flow adds.
"Social media advertisers need to ensure they are ready to go, in order to reach qualified buyers and Flow is set up to take their digital marketing strategies forward," adds Levy.
According to Flow, by delivering retargeted adverts to specific audience segments, each interaction can be more meaningful and can minimise wasteful spending on media, honing in on Meta targeting to reach the right audiences.
Flow's new website, launched in February, is part of Flow's evolution and next phase, offering:
- seamless navigation
- crystal clear communication, and
- an intuitive layout and faster loading times to enhance campaign delivery.
"Find the information you need quickly and easily, whether you're a seasoned marketer, big brand, agency, portal, network businesses or just starting your Adtech journey," Levy says.
"At Flow, we believe in keeping the process simple relative to the core need, which is to merge data and technology seamlessly. It is the present — and future solution for digital advertising," Levy adds.
"We're at an important milestone in our business that sends us from startup to scale-up and we've seen the value our platform adds to clients' bottom line. Our new website encompasses our passion and positioning, helping us to reach and impact even more clients and businesses around the world," concludes Sperling.