Digital Marketing represents a rapidly growing and technologically-advanced area of business operations. The MSc Digital Marketing programme is designed to prepare you for a career within this cutting-edge and challenging field. The programme is open to graduates of all disciplinary backgrounds and is also suitable for individuals who are looking to start or develop their own businesses.
- Learn to develop customer insights from data and use this to deliver successful products, services, and marketing campaigns.
- Specialise in digital marketing – a key skill for all marketers today.
- Learn from academics engaged in world-leading digital marketing research.
Study options
- Starting in
- September 2025
- Location
- Mile End
- Fees
- Home: £15,250
Overseas: £33,500
EU/EEA/Swiss students
What you'll study
You will start by learning the basics of marketing, digital marketing and AI in business, before engaging with more specialised topics including digital communications, campaigns and analytics.
The programme aims to help students build the following broad skills:
- Ability to develop independent insights from research and learning.
- Ability to critically evaluate competing approaches and viewpoints, and justify decisions.
- Ability to deal with complex and dynamic managerial and business environments.
- Ability to communicate effectively and with sensitivity to cultural or other relevant contextual factors.
- Ability to work ethically and with responsibility.
Structure
- Seven compulsory taught modules
- Choose ONE elective module
- Compulsory Dissertation or Business Game module
Compulsory/Core modules
This module gives an advanced outlook on marketing as a field of inquiry. It is providing students on the MSc in Marketing with a theoretical foundation of theories and concepts of marketing, which allows them in their subsequent studies to understand and situate more specialised aspects of marketing (e.g. consumer behaviour, brand management, or business relationships and networks). Special emphasis is given to understanding current academic debates in the field. This means students are expected to read articles in leading marketing journals.
This module will give you a basic introduction to research methods for marketing, starting with problem definition and question formulation, continuing onto selecting and designing appropriate research methodology and collecting data in various marketing circumstances, and finishing with essential data analysis with modern tools, and interpretation of that data. Finally, we will also work on essential tools for putting all of this together: how to communicate these ideas and findings to a broad audience in the form of a research report and oral presentation.
Internet and digital technologies have transformed marketing and impacted industry from retailing to healthcare. Companies face the challenge of developing and maintaining their business operations and customer engagement in a constantly evolving digital space. The key question is how to successfully deploy digital marketing strategies. What are techniques that companies need to master to make effective use of digital marketing? This module empowers students with skills and knowledge needed to work as a digital marketing professional after graduation.
The dissertation forms an important part of the assessment of the MSc Marketing Programme, carrying a weighting of 60 credits. The dissertation involves demonstration of ability to execute a research plan and independent investigation. The investigation can rely on primary data collected by the student, on secondary data available in the literature, or a mix of both. The dissertation will reflect skills of formulating research questions, synthesising information and analysing data, drawing insights and conclusions, and written communication.
This module will provide an overview of what AI is and how its applications can benefit businesses on strategic and tactical levels. Students will learn basic AI applications/algorithms and their limitations as well as utility.
This module interrogates the economic, social and cultural opportunities presented by the digital and platformed economy and its affordances of big data. In specific terms it provides an overview of the opportunities, risks and ethical challenges of such an economy for organizations, marketers, societies and humanity.
In this module, students will explore the important role of metrics in an organisation's business strategy and its implementation. Students will learn the principles of business performance evaluation using analytic tools.
The module will provide an appreciative overview of the digital communications landscape and how digital platforms and technologies have/are transformed(-ing) marketing communications and campaigns. Students will learn to leverage digital channels to create an integrated marketing campaign.
This is an immersive and application-focused alternative to the traditional dissertation. Students will take part in multiple rounds of a simulation exercise in which they will form groups to operate a fictitious business (based on real-world data).
Elective modules
The aim of this module is to explore the theory and practice of planning, effectively designing social marketing strategy, implementing and evaluating social marketing campaigns, and understanding the theory, uses and impacts of behavioural science and behavioural economics on society for its common good and social justice.
In this course, students will learn the art and science of storytelling as a strategic and tactical language of brand communication to break the information clutter and inform, connect, inspire, persuade and engage the consumers. Storytelling in the digital age fosters brand-consumer conversation, co-creating deeper symbolic meaning and brand tribes.
This module is designed to expose students to the latest advancements in sustainability issues and research in the marketing discipline. The module will cover the roots of sustainability marketing as a field of research, and introduce the range of research on sustainability, from the theoretical to the empirical, and from the classic to the current. The core of this module will be boosting students' ability to integrate sustainability into the theory and practice of marketing. Readings in each session incorporate theoretical and empirical studies, giving students an opportunity to explore different ways of pursuing answers to current sustainability, CSR and ethical challenges.
Please note that all modules are subject to change.
Assessment
Learning outcomes are assessed using a mix of coursework, essays, projects, presentations and, in some cases, exams. There will be variation across modules, and some are wholly examined by coursework. Teaching staff will aim to provide students with constructive feedback on assessments.
Dissertation
Compulsory - choice of dissertation or business game.
Teaching
Teaching will be conducted by research-oriented staff and supplemented, where appropriate, by visiting lecturers with professional expertise.
Students typically have 3 contact hours per week for each module. Within these three hours, each module has its own pattern of lectures, seminars/classes and other activities. Students could take part in a range of different teaching and learning activities, including one-to-one tutorials, guest lectures, simulation game(s), computer-lab based activities, group-work, independent studies, research projects and team learning.
Where you'll learn
Facilities
- ThinkPod interactive collaboration space with presentation, recording and video conferencing facilities.
- Media suite with industry-standard design and editing software (QUBE).
- Brand new Graduate Centre, offering purpose-built study spaces and an exclusive rooftop common room.
- 24-hour library on campus.
Campus
Teaching is based at Queen Mary’s Mile End Campus, one of the largest self-contained residential campuses in the capital. Our location in the heart of London’s East End offers a rich cultural environment.
We have invested £105m in new facilities over the past five years, to offer our students an exceptional learning environment. Recent developments include the £39m Graduate Centre, providing 7,700 square metres of learning, teaching and social space.
The campus is 15 minutes from Central London by tube, where you will have access to many of the University of London’s facilities, such as the Senate House library.
About the School
School of Business and Management
The School of Business and Management has a reputation as a socially engaged management school, with an innovative, multidisciplinary, mindful and responsible approach. We invite our students to ask incisive questions, to challenge their assumptions, and to search for solutions to real-world challenges.
We ensure students experience innovative and engaging educational pathways, alongside supportive staff and excellent research facilities.
The School is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), which ensures that the highest standards of excellence in teaching, research, curriculum, and learner success are met.
In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021), the School of Business and Management dramatically moved up the Times Higher Education rankings. Among 108 UK business schools, the School now ranks:
- 22nd for overall research quality (up from 39th in REF2014)
- 28th for research outputs (up from 34th)
- 12th for research impact (up from 24th)
- 21st for research environment (up from 59th)
Queen Mary is also part of the Russell Group - a body of leading UK universities dedicated to research and teaching excellence.
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—“The MSc Digital Marketing programme at the School of Business and Management has been a highly rewarding experience. It combines academic theory with practical applications, modules like AI for Business and Brand Storytelling focus on emerging areas that are essential for building personal skills and staying competitive in the industry. The supportive faculty and the opportunity to work with a diverse group of students also made the learning experience inspiring and enjoyable.”
Maki Zhang, MSc Digital Marketing
Career paths
Graduates of this course will be well-equipped to pursue careers in brand management, digital marketing management, email marketing, SEO, social media management, content strategy and market research.
The School works closely with the Careers Service to support students with finding internships, making applications and preparing for interviews and assessment centres.
Fees and funding
Full-time study
September 2025 | 1 year
- Home: £15,250
- Overseas: £33,500
EU/EEA/Swiss students
Conditional deposit
Home: Not applicable
Overseas: £2000
Information about deposits
Queen Mary alumni can get a £1000, 10% or 20% discount on their fees depending on the programme of study. Find out more about the Alumni Loyalty Award
Funding
There are a number of ways you can fund your postgraduate degree.
- Scholarships and bursaries
- Postgraduate loans (UK students)
- Country-specific scholarships for international students
Our Advice and Counselling service offers specialist support on financial issues, which you can access as soon as you apply for a place at Queen Mary. Before you apply, you can access our funding guides and advice on managing your money:
Entry requirements
UK
Degree requirements
A 2:1 or above at undergraduate level in any subject.
Find out more about how to apply for our postgraduate taught courses.
International
English language requirements
The English language requirements for our programmes are indicated by English bands, and therefore the specific test and score acceptable is based on the band assigned to the academic department within which your chosen course of study is administered. Note that for some academic departments there are programmes with non-standard English language requirements.
The English Language requirements for entry to postgraduate taught in the School of Business and Management falls within the following English band:
Band 4: IELTS (Academic) minimum score 6.5 overall with 6.0 in each of Writing, Listening, Reading and Speaking
We accept a range of English tests and qualifications categorised in our English bands for you to demonstrate your level of English Language proficiency. See all accepted English tests that we deem equivalent to these IELTS scores.
Visas and immigration
Find out how to apply for a student visa.