MAC Data Analysis & Decision Making 3

Question 1

A dataset shows that ice cream sales and drowning rates both rise in summer. This is best described as:

Accepted Answer

Spurious correlation caused by a confounding variable (hot weather)

Answer

Both variables are driven by the confounding variable of hot weather, making the correlation spurious rather than causal.

Question 2

Which statistical test is most appropriate for determining whether two independent group means are significantly different?

Accepted Answer

Independent samples t-test

Answer

The independent samples t-test is used to compare the means of two unrelated groups to determine if the difference is statistically significant.

Question 3

A marketing team reports a 200% improvement in click-through rate. The absolute CTR changed from 0.1% to 0.3%. What should an analyst flag?

Accepted Answer

The absolute values are low and context is needed to assess business impact

Answer

Reporting only relative improvement can be misleading when the absolute baseline is very low, so both metrics must be contextualized.

Question 4

In multi-touch attribution, what distinguishes a data-driven model from a rules-based model such as last-touch?

Accepted Answer

Data-driven models assign credit using machine learning on actual conversion path data

Answer

Data-driven attribution uses algorithms trained on observed conversion paths to assign fractional credit, rather than applying fixed heuristic rules.

Question 5

When building a customer lifetime value (CLV) model, which input is least relevant?

Accepted Answer

Customer's ZIP code demographics

Answer

ZIP code demographics are not a direct input to CLV; the core inputs are purchase behavior and margin data.

(MAC) Marketing Analytics Certification Practice Test