Ensemble Modeling

In the world of analytics,modeling is a general term used to refer to the use of data mining (machine learning) methods to develop predictions. If you want to know what ad a particular user is more likely to click on, or which customers are likely to leave you for a competitor, you develop a predictive model. There are a lot of models to choose from: Regression, Decision Trees, K Nearest Neighbor, Neural Nets, etc. They all will provide you with a prediction, but some will do better than others depending on the data you are working with. While there are certain tricks and tweaks one can do to improve the accuracy of these models, it never hurts to remember the fact that there is wisdom to be found in the masses.