From the field
AIDA
A checklist for a single piece of communication that requires it to earn attention, build interest, create desire, and enable action in sequence, because an ad that skips a stage fails at the next one.
The common failure is treating AIDA as a funnel of separate campaigns. It is older and simpler than that: it is a quality check for one ad, read top to bottom. Most broken ads fail at exactly one stage, and the metrics tell you which.
Use it when
- Diagnosing an ad with a high CTR that produces no conversions
- Writing any ad or landing page from a blank screen
- Reviewing a client's creative before it spends money
Do not use it when
- Retargeting warm audiences that already sit at desire or action
- Brand campaigns measured on reach, where action is not the goal
The steps
- Attention: earn the stop. The first visual or line must interrupt the scroll for the chosen segment specifically.
- Interest: make it about them. One line that names the reader's situation, not the business's history.
- Desire: show the after-state. Proof, before/after, a number, or a named outcome, a reason to want it now. Whatever you show here is the expectation the delivery will be measured against; see the Alevli gap.
- Action: remove one step. A single instruction with the friction stated honestly: "Book online in 40 seconds."
AIDA
Attention
Interest
Desire
Action
Worked example
A Meta ad for a hair salon, diagnosed stage by stage:
| Stage | Element | Before | After |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attention | Image | Logo on gradient | Client transformation photo |
| Interest | Line 1 | "20 years of experience" | "Grown-out balayage?" |
| Desire | Body | Service list | 3 before/afters + price |
| Action | CTA | "Learn more" | "Book: pick a time in 30s" |
CTR held at 1.8%; bookings per click tripled. The ad's attention was never the problem; desire and action were, illustrative numbers.
Why it works
Each metric maps to one stage: no impressions is a targeting problem, low CTR is failed attention, high CTR with no conversions is missing desire, and abandoned forms are broken action. The checklist turns "the ad isn't working" into a single fixable defect.
Who this is for
The same method, read three ways.
01
Running it
Read one ad top to bottom and find the single stage it fails at. The metrics point straight at it: low CTR is attention, high CTR with no conversions is desire.
02
Teaching it
The oldest model in the syllabus, taught as a diagnostic rather than a funnel. Each stage maps to one metric, which turns an abstract sequence into something a student can mark up on a real ad.
03
Writing your own ad
Four questions to ask your own advert before you pay to show it. Most ads that fail are missing exactly one of them, and it is usually desire.