Nearly two-thirds of marketers say in the previous year their firm experienced some kind of digital marketing fraud, such as bots' clicking on ads or filling out lead generation forms, according to recent research from White Ops and Renegade.

The report was based on data from a survey conducted in the fall of 2020 among 129 digital marketing leaders with performance marketing responsibilities.

Some 63% of respondents say they experienced some sort of digital marketing fraud in the previous 12 months.

The most commonly experienced types of fraud are media buy fraud (36% of digital marketers say they have experienced it), lead generation fraud (23%), and retargeting fraud (20%).

Some 22% of digital marketers say they think a quarter or more of the contacts in their first-party database are fake/fraudulent.

Some 43% of digital marketers who notice suspicious behavior on their website say they cannot estimate how much of their site traffic comes from bots. 

About the research: The report was based on data from a survey conducted in the fall of 2020 among 129 digital marketing leaders with performance marketing responsibilities.