As a marketing strategist for over a decade, I've always been fascinated by what makes people click, engage, and ultimately buy. One framework I keep coming back to is the AIDA model.
I saw it work brilliantly while scrolling through Instagram — a Duolingo ad stopped my thumb mid-scroll:
- The giant green owl mascot doing a trending dance grabbed my attention.
- The caption about “learning a language in 5 minutes a day” piqued my interest.
- The comments section filled with successful learners sparked my desire.
- The “Download Now” button prompted immediate action.
This is AIDA in action. I‘ve used this same framework to help countless brands craft compelling messages that convert. Let’s explore how it works and how you can use it for your next marketing campaign.
Table of Contents
What does “AIDA” stand for?
Let me break down this acronym in a way that I've found resonates with both new marketers and seasoned professionals.
- Attention: Grab your audience's focus.
- Interest: Keep them engaged.
- Desire: Make them want what you offer.
- Action: Guide them to take the next step.
I like to think of AIDA as a story that unfolds in your customer‘s mind. It’s based on the hierarchy of effects theory, which suggests that customers move through each emotional stage before taking action.
In my experience, AIDA works similarly to a marketing funnel, with fewer people at each subsequent stage. However, I've noticed two key differences:
- AIDA is more linear.
- It focuses on psychological progression rather than just customer journey touchpoints.
History of the AIDA Model
As someone who's studied marketing frameworks extensively, I find it fascinating that one of our most powerful marketing strategies comes from the 19th century.
The AIDA advertising formula was developed by eventual Advertising Hall of Fame inductee Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1898. To put this in perspective, this was when:
- Marketing meant newspaper ads.
- The fastest car reached just 39 mph.
- The telephone was still a luxury item.
Why It Still Matters Today
In my experience, these four components — attention, interest, desire, and action — remain fundamental to successful marketing. I've seen them work across every channel I use:
- TikTok and Instagram Reels
- AI-powered email sequences
- Interactive landing pages
- Immersive video content
The AIDA model consistently helps me create content that attracts and engages customers, generates leads, and closes deals.
What I find particularly remarkable is how this “old school” model has adapted to modern marketing channels. Even in 2025, with generative artificial intelligence and virtual reality becoming mainstream marketing tools, these core psychological principles continue to drive consumer behavior.
How to Apply the AIDA Model to Your Marketing
I‘ve noticed that the AIDA model shares elements with great storytelling. Even if you haven’t heard of the AIDA model before, there‘s a good chance you’ve naturally used it in your marketing materials.
By bringing a little bit of structure to your instincts, you can create content and design your website with more control over your prospects' paths to a purchasing decision.
Here’s a guide to understanding and implementing each stage of the AIDA marketing model.
1. Attract attention.
In my AIDA advertising and marketing campaigns, I've found that choosing the right words sparks audience curiosity. At this first stage, your consumer is simply asking, “What is it?”
Note that this step usually follows or overlaps with your efforts to increase brand awareness.
Pro tip: I’m a big fan of starting small by making lists of attention-grabbing words. While AI tools like ChatGPT can help generate ideas, I recommend avoiding words that aren‘t already in your vocabulary or don’t naturally fit your marketing copy.
For example, when writing this article, I used HubSpot's AI tool to generate a list of 20 words that spark curiosity in marketing copy.
It returned words like “discover” and “exclusive,” which are widely applicable, but it also suggested “mystery” and “enigmatic” — neither of which I’d likely use unless the service in question involved a magician (and probably not even then, but you know your audience best!).
2. Generate interest.
You’ve captured their attention — now you have to hold it.
Through my experience, I've found that audiences want to learn more about your brand, the benefits of your solution(s), and your potential fit with them. At this stage of the AIDA model, I focus on creating persuasive, exciting content that makes people think, “I like it.”
Pro tip: I‘ve learned that the best way to generate interest is with a compelling hook. What makes your product or service distinct? In my AIDA advertising campaigns, I avoid industry jargon and clichés by being specific. I’ve found that audiences remember stories better than facts and figures, so I lean heavily on storytelling to create resonance.
To generate interest for my new small business, a magician-staffed house-cleaning service that declutters your home with the flick of a wand (if only!), I began with my list of curiosity-sparking words.
“Discover the magic of a clean house” grabs the attention of people with messy houses, and “magic” suggests something distinct about the service.
3. Evoke desire.
The goal of this stage is to turn that “I like it” into an “I want it.”
You can accomplish this the same way social media influencers do: by building trust with your audience. You’re much more likely to want a product if you trust that the influencer actually uses and loves it.
I‘ve learned to build trust much like successful social media influencers do. When an audience trusts that someone genuinely uses and values a product, they’re more likely to want it themselves.
For my magical house-cleaning service, I can build trust through empathetic content that doesn’t alienate my messy potential customers. Here are some content examples I've found effective for building trust in this way:
- Before-and-after photos that celebrate progress, not perfection.
- Quick organizing tips that show immediate results.
- Customer stories highlighting common challenges.
- Weekly cleaning checklists for different home sizes.
- Time-saving cleaning hacks for busy families.
These types of content help build desire by showing achievable results while maintaining empathy with potential customers.
Adapt that to your own brand on your website, newsletter, downloadable offers, and social media, and keep serving content that’s interesting, accurate, and builds a rapport with your audience.
Download Now: Free AIDA Model Template
The prospects you’re most likely to close are the consumers who envision a future with you — they already enjoy consuming your content and think your product or service will be even better.
For this reason, you must demonstrate a gap between where they are now and where they could be with your solution. At the same time, you must establish social proof with case studies and testimonials.
For example, when marketing a project management tool, I might share how a marketing team went from missing 40% of their deadlines to hitting 95% within three months. Then, I'd follow up with testimonials from the team lead about improved morale and client satisfaction.
Pro tip: I‘ve found that “before and after”-style content consistently performs well in the desire stage. Whether it’s screenshots of a productivity dashboard, revenue growth charts, or customer success metrics, showing tangible transformation helps prospects envision their own potential success.
Example: Calendly
One of my favorite examples of desire-building content is Calendly's case study about Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC): “How one college saved $170K last year with Calendly.”
The case study follows the before-and-after principle perfectly: It shows how DMACC transformed from having students lined up out the door and dealing with frequent double bookings, to a streamlined scheduling system across 12 locations.
The results include a 4.5x ROI with $170,000 in cost savings and a 100% decrease in double bookings. Plus, it features strong social proof through quotes from an academic advisor, making success feel achievable for similar institutions.
4. Spur Into Action
After you generate enough desire for your product or service, give your prospects the chance to act on it. The goal is to transform their desire into action and compel them to respond with low-friction but high-incentive calls to action.
You want their “I want it” to convert to “I’m getting it.”
Pro tip: I always ensure that prospects (no matter where they are in their decision journey) can easily see the value they‘ll receive. Whether it’s a free trial, demo, or consultation, make the next step crystal clear and compelling.
For example, when I create CTAs for software products, I might use “Start your free trial — see results in 24 hours” or “Book your demo to discover time-saving features.” These CTAs clearly establish both the action and the value.
The key is making your CTA prominent, clear, and uncomplicated. I always ensure buttons or banners spell out exactly what action to take and what value they'll receive in return.
Example: Nerdwallet
I often point to Nerdwallet as a master of friction-free CTAs. Its credit card comparison tool shows what I look for in the Action stage of AIDA.
Nerdwallet makes it easy for people to take action. Its homepage features two clear CTAs that serve different user needs:
- “Compare credit cards” — for people ready to make a choice.
- “Explore Guides and Tips” — for those who need more information.
Each button is simple and clear, with a short description showing its value. This approach gives users a choice based on where they are in their decision process.
AIDA Drawbacks
As a content marketer who loves AIDA, I hate to admit that it comes with limitations. Yes, it's a useful framework, but not all purchasing decisions follow this neat, linear path.
Modern buyers often skip stages or enter the journey at different points — for example, finding a solution while researching a problem, bypassing the attention and interest stages entirely. The model also doesn't address what happens after the action stage, like customer delight and retention.
In my experience, today‘s consumers expect ongoing engagement and support. That’s why I always recommend viewing AIDA as part of a larger growth strategy. I've found that combining it with other models, like the flywheel, creates a more complete approach to marketing and customer relationships.
Using the AIDA Model in the Era of AI
As someone who works with both traditional frameworks and new technology, I often get asked about AIDA's relevance in 2025. While AI might seem to make linear models obsolete, recent research shows the opposite is true.
The latest studies reveal AI significantly enhances AIDA's effectiveness through:
- Improved sales performance via AI-driven recommendation engines and personalized marketing.
- Optimized ad spend and automated customer interactions that reduce acquisition costs.
- Enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty through predictive analytics.
- More effective resource allocation based on detailed campaign performance data.
- AI-powered content production that can be tailored for each AIDA stage.
- Chatbots and virtual assistants that guide customers through the purchase journey.
I've seen these insights play out in my own work with AI and AIDA. Let me show you how I apply them at each stage.
AI-Enhanced Attention
I use AI content generators to test hundreds of headline variations, while sentiment analysis identifies which emotional triggers capture attention most effectively. For example, when I tested social media posts, AI-optimized headlines consistently increased click-through rates by pinpointing patterns in high-performing content.
AI-Driven Interest
Large language models now help create personalized content paths. When a prospect engages with specific topics, AI analyzes their behavior and automatically serves relevant content that maintains their interest. I've seen engagement rates double using this approach.
Data-Informed Desire
AI analytics tools track user interactions across multiple touchpoints, helping identify exactly when interest transforms into desire. This helps me understand which content combinations create the strongest emotional connections. For instance, I use GPT-4 to analyze customer reviews and identify the specific features and benefits that drive purchase intent.
Automated Action Optimization
Modern AI tools continuously test and refine CTAs, automatically adjusting button placement, color, and copy based on real-time performance data. They can even personalize the final conversion step based on the customer's journey, showing different offers to different segments.
What excites me most about combining AI with AIDA is how it makes this classic framework more dynamic and responsive while maintaining its core psychological principles.
Using the AIDA Advertising Framework
After spending years applying the AIDA model to various marketing campaigns, I‘ve come to appreciate its enduring relevance. Even in 2025, 127 years after Elias St. Elmo Lewis first developed it, I still find it remarkably effective for understanding and improving the buyer’s journey.
What I‘ve learned is that whether you’re using sophisticated AI tools or crafting traditional marketing campaigns, AIDA's fundamental principles of human psychology remain unchanged. It continues to help me create more engaging, persuasive, and effective advertising that converts audiences into customers.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
