What does "Dependent Variable" mean?
Definition of Dependent Variable in the context of A/B testing (online controlled experiments).
What is a Dependent Variable?
A dependent variable is any variable that could be influenced by the intervention we are testing. In an A/B test this would be any outcomes of interest such as conversion rate, average revenue per user, average order value and others. A dependent variable is usually modeled as a random variable (a parameter behaving as if produced by a stochastic process).
Contrast this to an independent variable such as a user's age, sex, location, and so on, which is fixed in time and therefore cannot be influenced by anything a conversion rate optimization expert attempts.
Like this glossary entry? For an in-depth and comprehensive reading on A/B testing stats, check out the book "Statistical Methods in Online A/B Testing" by the author of this glossary, Georgi Georgiev.
Related A/B Testing terms
Independent VariableAbout the author
Georgi has over twenty years of experience in online marketing, web analytics, statistics, and design of business experiments.
Author of the book "Statistical Methods in Online A/B Testing", white papers on statistical analysis of A/B tests, and a speaker, he has been distinguished as a winner in the Data & Analytics category of the 2024 Experimentation Thought Leadership Awards.
Statistical Methods in Online A/B Testing
Take your A/B testing program to the next level with the most comprehensive book on user testing statistics in e-commerce.
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