A/B Test of Email Subject Lines: CTR Hypotheses, CLT Justification, and Sample Size
Context
You are comparing click-through rates (CTRs) between a control email (current subject line) and a test email (new subject line). Each recipient either clicks (1) or not (0), so CTR is a proportion. Assume independent users and equal allocation between variants.
Let:
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p_c = CTR of control
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p_t = CTR of test
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n_c, n_t = sample sizes for control and test (often n_c = n_t = n)
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α = 0.05 significance level, power = 0.80 (β = 0.20)
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Desired minimum detectable effect (MDE) = 2 percentage points = 0.02
Tasks
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State the null and alternative hypotheses for comparing CTRs.
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Explain how the Central Limit Theorem (CLT) justifies a z-test for large samples.
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Derive the sample size needed per group to detect a 2-percentage-point lift with 80% power at α = 0.05. Provide a general formula in terms of the baseline CTR and a numeric example.