MKTG90046 · Content Marketing
The Complete Exam Bible · S1 2027Content Marketing
MKTG90046 Content Marketing is a core postgraduate subject in the University of Melbourne's Master of Digital Marketing, taught out of the Department of Management and Marketing as a single 3-hour weekly seminar. It is a strategy-and-systems subject rather than a numeric one: across twelve weeks and five modules it builds one connected idea - the content-marketing system that runs Audience Needs -> Content Assets -> Distribution -> Business Outcomes - from what content marketing is (the Content Marketing Institute definition and Paid-Owned-Earned Media), through audiences and Jobs to Be Done, STP and positioning, the modern content funnel and measurement, editorial systems and content pillars, ideation and authority/trust, modern search, distribution and email/CRM automation, paid amplification, and finally optimisation, governance and ethics. Assessment is four components with no hurdle on any of them: in-class participation (10%), an individual brand content-marketing audit (10%, ~1,000 words, due Week 4), a group content marketing plan (30%, ~5,000 words, due Week 10), and the big one - a 2-hour closed-book on-campus digital end-of-semester exam worth 50%, sat as an LMS Classic Quiz through Lockdown Browser, marked out of 100. The exam has three sections: Section A (40 marks, four equally-weighted short-answer questions on a fictional brand answered as a content-marketing consultant), Section B (40 marks, four creative case-response questions on a well-known brand answered as its content manager) and Section C (20 marks, three questions on a pre-released seen case study). The Subject Guide is explicit that there is no hurdle requirement - if your final mark is above 50%, you pass this subject - and the whole paper rewards applying theory to a brand, not reciting it. Your MKTG90046 result feeds the Weighted Average Mark (WAM) that your Master of Digital Marketing standing is built on. Confirm the exact exam date, time and room on Canvas and your personal UniMelb exam timetable.
What MKTG90046 covers
MKTG90046 runs across twelve weeks in five modules - Foundation, Strategy, Systems & Content Creation, Distribution & Automation, and Optimisation & Governance - building a complete content-marketing system from audience Jobs to Be Done through to paid amplification, governance and ethics. Half the mark is the 2-hour closed-book end-of-semester exam (Sections A, B and C, including a pre-released seen case), alongside an individual content audit (10%), in-class participation (10%) and a group content marketing plan (30%). The chapters below follow the real UniMelb teaching order so your revision matches how the subject was taught.
How MKTG90046 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| In-class participation | 10% | Individual - small in-class activities/participation across the teaching period (Weeks 1-12) |
| Individual assignment (Brand Content Marketing Audit & Strategic Extension) | 10% | Individual - ~1,000 words (approx. 700-word audit + 300-word content concept); audit an Australian brand's owned content hub plus one supporting channel, identify a strategic gap and draft a content concept with a visual ecosystem map, applying STP, JTBD and the marketing funnel; due Sun of Week 4 |
| Group assignment (Content Marketing Plan) | 30% | Groups of 3-5 - ~5,000-word full content marketing plan (strategy through to a detailed content plan with metrics and sample content pieces); part of the mark is project management; due Sun of Week 10 |
| End of Semester Exam | 50% | Individual - 2-hour closed-book on-campus digital exam (LMS Classic Quiz via Lockdown Browser) + 15 min reading time, marked out of 100; Section A four short-answer questions (40) + Section B four creative case-response questions (40) + Section C three seen-case-study questions (20) |
Reading the metrics funnel: CTR, CVR, ROAS and CPA on one campaign
- +1Click-through rate (CTR) = clicks ÷ impressions = 8,000 ÷ 400,000 = 0.02 = 2%. CTR measures how well the creative and targeting earn the click at the top of the funnel.
- +1Conversion rate (CVR) = conversions ÷ clicks = 240 ÷ 8,000 = 0.03 = 3%. CVR measures how well the landing page and offer turn a click into an action further down the funnel.
- +1Return on ad spend (ROAS) = revenue ÷ spend = 10,800 ÷ 3,600 = 3.0, i.e. $3 of revenue for every $1 spent (a 3:1 return).
- +1Cost per acquisition (CPA) = spend ÷ conversions = 3,600 ÷ 240 = $15 per new customer.
- +1Interpretation: at a $15 CPA against a first-order value of $45 (10,800 ÷ 240), the campaign is profitable on the first purchase and a strong amplification candidate. Note how small rate gains compound - lifting CVR from 3% to 4% at the same CTR would add 80 conversions and cut CPA to $11.25, so optimising the landing page usually beats buying more impressions.
Key terms
- Content marketing (CMI definition)
- A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. The load-bearing words are strategic (long-term, not a campaign), valuable/relevant/consistent (audience-first, not product-first), clearly defined audience (targeting) and profitable action (tied to business outcomes).
- POEM (Paid, Owned, Earned Media)
- The media framework content marketing is anchored in. Paid = media you pay for (ads, boosted posts) to extend reach; Owned = channels you control (website, blog, email) and the home of content marketing; Earned = exposure you earn (shares, word-of-mouth, reviews, UGC) that validates credibility. Paid drives traffic to Owned; strong Owned generates Earned; Earned makes Paid more effective.
- Jobs to Be Done (JTBD)
- A framework (Christensen/Ulwick) that focuses on the progress a customer is trying to make in a context - 'people don't buy products; they hire solutions.' A job has functional, emotional, personal and social dimensions, and mapping demand signals to the underlying job turns audience problems into content opportunities.
- The marketing funnel
- A planning model of how audiences move from Awareness -> Consideration -> Conversion -> Loyalty -> Advocacy. It is not a literal map of a non-linear, ~60%-zero-click world, but it remains useful for defining each content piece's role and for diagnosing gaps in a content system.
- Content pillars
- The 3-5 strategic topic territories a brand consistently owns, derived from audience JTBD, positioning and business goals. Pillars are topic territories, not content types or formats, and they cascade Pillars -> Themes -> Topics to drive ongoing ideation and consistent coverage across the journey.
- The metrics funnel (CTR / CVR / ROAS / CPA)
- The core performance chain: CTR = clicks ÷ impressions, CVR = conversions ÷ clicks, ROAS = revenue ÷ spend, CPA = spend ÷ conversions. Metrics should match a content piece's funnel role, and strategic outcomes (leads, revenue) matter more than vanity metrics (views, likes).
MKTG90046 FAQ
Is MKTG90046 hard?
It is conceptually broad rather than technically hard. There is very little maths - only a handful of performance metrics (CTR, CVR, ROAS, CPA) that read cleanly in plain arithmetic - so the challenge is fluency, not difficulty: you must hold a whole connected system of frameworks (POEM, JTBD, STP, the funnel, content pillars, source credibility, the ELM, topic clusters, email/CRM flows, governance) and apply the right one to a fresh brand under time pressure. The exam rewards applying theory to a scenario, not reciting it, so students who keep up weekly and practise applying frameworks to real brands tend to find it very manageable; those who try to memorise definitions in SWOTVAC struggle because the paper never just asks for a definition. Steady weekly work also protects your WAM, since half the mark rides on one closed-book exam.
Can AI help me with MKTG90046?
Yes, as a step-by-step study aid. Sia is an AI tutor built to mirror how MKTG90046 is actually taught and assessed at the University of Melbourne: it can walk you through a POEM breakdown, a Jobs-to-Be-Done chain, an STP-to-positioning cascade, a funnel-and-metrics read or a seen-case analysis one step at a time, and it checks your reasoning as you go. Bring your own scenario or a past-style question and ask Sia to explain the method. It does not do graded assessment for you - it will not write your individual audit, your group plan or your exam answers - and University of Melbourne academic-integrity rules still apply. Use it to understand and rehearse the frameworks, not to produce work you submit.
Where can I find past exam papers / practice for MKTG90046?
Start on Canvas: the subject posts its own exam-preparation material, including the 'Exam Structure & Key Topics' page and the pre-released Section C seen case study, and the University of Melbourne Library keeps a past-exam collection worth searching. Your seminar activities, the individual-audit brief and the group-plan brief are the closest practice to the applied questions the exam asks. This guide also includes a re-authored practice exam that mirrors the paper's shape - Sections A, B and C on fresh brands and a fresh seen case - and you can ask Sia to generate extra practice in the same style and explain each step. Treat any third-party 'model answers' with caution and confirm what is officially provided on Canvas.
What are the MKTG90046 hurdles and assessment rules?
There are no hurdles. The Subject Guide states explicitly that there is no hurdle requirement - if your final mark is above 50%, you pass this subject - so no single component (not the exam, not participation) has a minimum you must separately clear. The four components are in-class participation (10%), the individual brand content-marketing audit (10%, due Week 4), the group content marketing plan (30%, due Week 10) and the end-of-semester exam (50%). The exam is closed-book and on-campus (an LMS Classic Quiz via Lockdown Browser); an approved Casio FX82 calculator is permitted under the general UniMelb exam rule. Always confirm the current weights, due dates and permitted materials on your Canvas Assessments page and the UniMelb Handbook, since offerings can change year to year.
What is on the MKTG90046 final exam?
A 2-hour closed-book on-campus digital exam (LMS Classic Quiz via Lockdown Browser) with 15 minutes reading time, marked out of 100 and worth 50%. It has three sections you must all answer: Section A (40 marks) is four equally-weighted short-answer questions on a single fictional brand scenario, which you answer as a hired content-marketing consultant, tailoring theory to the product category and likely audience; Section B (40 marks) is four unequally-weighted creative case-response questions on a well-known brand, answered as its content-marketing manager, where you must show you can actually do it, not just explain it; and Section C (20 marks) is three questions on a case study released in advance, where strong answers apply course theory rather than summarise. Expect the topic pool to span modern search, organic discovery, the content-creation system, repurposing/POEM, the owned content hub, email marketing, influencers/UGC and the use and risks of AI. The exam sits in the University of Melbourne Semester 1, 2027 examination period (around June 2027) - confirm the exact date, time and room on Canvas and your personal exam timetable.
How to study for the exam
Treat MKTG90046 as one connected system, not twelve separate weeks, and rehearse application every week rather than cramming definitions in SWOTVAC. Build a single one-page map of the spine - Audience Needs -> Content Assets -> Distribution -> Business Outcomes - and hang each framework off the stage it serves (POEM and the CMI definition at the front; JTBD, STP and personas in strategy; the funnel, content ladder and metrics in measurement; pillars, ideation, source credibility and the ELM in creation; search intent, topic clusters, email/CRM and paid amplification in distribution; decay, refresh/consolidate/retire, governance and ethics at the end). Because every exam section hands you a brand and asks you to advise, practise the move the paper actually tests: take a real Australian brand, run STP + JTBD, map its funnel, name one strategic gap and pitch one content concept - exactly the individual-audit method. Drill the small quantitative pieces (CTR, CVR, ROAS, CPA and the 'which post do we amplify?' save/share logic) until they are automatic, since they read cleanly and are easy marks. Rehearse the Section C seen case with the six-step method (category/context -> insight->strategy -> audience -> POEM implementation -> performance vs targets -> transferable lessons) so you are applying, not summarising. Climb Bloom's ladder in your practice answers - apply/analyse/evaluate against the brand, never just define - and time yourself at roughly 1.2 minutes per mark. When a framework won't click, ask Sia to explain that one step a different way and set you a fresh practice scenario; it teaches the method and checks your reasoning, and it never substitutes for your own graded work. Confirm the exam date, room and rules on Canvas and the University of Melbourne exam timetable.
Your AI Marketing tutor for MKTG90046
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