The AIDA model is a way to build an ad or a sale in four steps: Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. First the person has to notice the offer, then want to learn more, then want to buy, and finally understand what to do right now. Each stage has its own job and its own metric that shows whether it works.
Most people use AIDA as a copywriting template: headline, paragraph, benefits, button — and stop there. The more useful part is different: the model shows at which step buyers get lost. Below is where AIDA came from, how it maps onto a product page and an ad, a calculation that finds the weak stage from your numbers, and when the model is not enough.
When people look up the AIDA model
Usually when ads are already running but sales are low, or when a product description or an ad has to be written and it is not clear where to start. A store owner or marketer searches for "AIDA model", "AIDA meaning", "AIDA model example" and "who created the AIDA model".
The next question is often whether AIDA works for cheap products and quick sales. It does, but it compresses: for an inexpensive item all four steps fit into a title, a photo, one benefit and a button. The real question is not "should I use it" but "at which of the four steps am I failing right now".
Who created the AIDA model
AIDA is traditionally credited to the American advertising pioneer E. St. Elmo Lewis, who supposedly formulated it in 1898. This version comes from Edward K. Strong's book "The Psychology of Selling and Advertising" (1925): Strong writes that Lewis came up with the slogan "attract attention, maintain interest, create desire", and that "get action" was added later.
The Lewis-and-1898 version is now disputed. In a 2024 article in the Japan Marketing History Review, researcher Akinori Iwamoto concluded that there is no evidence of Lewis's authorship and that the model was first formulated by sales trainer Arthur Frederick Sheldon. For practice this changes nothing: the model has been used in advertising and sales for over a hundred years, and the year 1898 is best quoted with the note "according to Strong".
The four stages of AIDA: the job and the metric of each
Each AIDA stage answers one buyer question and has its own metric: attention — "is this for me?", interest — "what does it do for me?", desire — "why this one, and why now?", action — "what do I do?".
| Stage | Buyer's question | What works | Metric |
|---|---|---|---|
| A — Attention | "Is this for me?" | A headline about the buyer's need, a photo of the product in use | Ad click-through rate, product page views |
| I — Interest | "What does it do for me?" | Three facts that set the product apart: size, material, what's in the box | Time on page, scrolling to the specs |
| D — Desire | "Why this one, and why now?" | Reviews, warranty, return terms, comparison, stock status | Add to cart |
| A — Action | "What do I do?" | One visible button, price with shipping, a simple checkout | Orders placed from the cart |
The stages run in order, and a failure at an early step cannot be saved by a later one: the best button will not help if nobody noticed the ad. So you fix not "the whole copy" but the one stage where the most people drop off.
AIDA example for a product page
On a product page AIDA reads from top to bottom: the title and photo bring attention, the first lines of the description bring interest, reviews and the warranty bring desire, the button brings action.
Illustrative example: the product and terms are made up. A 0.5 L thermos.
| Stage | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Attention | "Stainless steel thermos 0.5 L item 4471" | "0.5 L thermos: keeps tea hot for 12 hours, fits a backpack side pocket"; first photo — the thermos in a backpack pocket |
| Interest | A paragraph about "high quality and stylish design" | Three bullets: 12 hours hot, 24 cold; cup-lid; weighs 340 g |
| Desire | Nothing | Customer reviews, warranty, "30-day returns", "in stock, ships today" |
| Action | Two buttons in the same color: "Buy" and "Add to wishlist" | One bright "Buy" button with the price and delivery time next to it |
The numbers in "after" are the ones the buyer looks for anyway: how long it keeps heat, whether it fits, how much it weighs. Take them from the supplier's specs and check them rather than writing "up to 24 hours" at random. How to build the whole description, and which formulas sit next to AIDA (FAB, PAS, 4P), is covered in how to write product descriptions.
AIDA example for an ad
An ad has only a few lines for all four stages: the first line is attention, a fact is interest, a benefit or a condition is desire, a button with a verb is action.
| Stage | Text |
|---|---|
| Attention | "Tea still hot at 6 pm" |
| Interest | "This 0.5 L thermos keeps heat for 12 hours and fits your backpack pocket" |
| Desire | "Ships the day you order, 30-day returns" |
| Action | "Shop now" button |
The first line talks about the buyer's situation, not the product: "hot tea in the evening" gets noticed by the people who need it. Formulas for that line and the character limits of Google Ads and Meta are in ad headlines, and how to make the ad image itself is in ad creatives.
How to find the stage where buyers drop off
Calculate the conversion between neighboring stages and fix the one that is lowest compared with your usual level. Each step of the funnel corresponds to one letter of AIDA.
Stage conversion = people who moved to the next step ÷ people who reached this step × 100%.
Illustrative example for the arithmetic, not market data. The thermos ad got 10,000 impressions.
| Step | AIDA stage | People in | Moved on | Conversion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Impression → click | Attention | 10,000 | 200 | 2% |
| Click → cart | Interest and desire | 200 | 20 | 10% |
| Cart → order | Action | 20 | 10 | 50% |
Now see what fixing each stage gives. If click-to-cart conversion rises from 10% to 15%, the same 200 clicks give 30 carts and 15 orders — five more without spending another euro on ads. Half of carts abandoned at the action stage is a reason to check whether an unexpected shipping cost appears in the cart and how many fields the buyer has to fill in.
| Failure | Most common cause | What to change |
|---|---|---|
| Few clicks (attention) | The headline is about the product, not the buyer's situation; the photo does not stand out | The first line, the first photo, the audience |
| Clicks but no add to cart (interest, desire) | The ad promises one thing, the page shows another; no reviews, shipping cost or stock status | The first lines of the description, the reviews and warranty block |
| Abandoned carts (action) | Shipping appears only in the cart, forced account creation, few payment options | The cart and checkout, not the copy |
When AIDA is not enough
AIDA describes one purchase from first contact to order. It falls short where the decision is long or where what happens after the purchase matters.
- Expensive products and B2B. The buyer compares, consults, comes back a week later. One text cannot carry them through all the stages: you need a conversation in which the seller uncovers the need — that is what SPIN selling is for.
- Repeat purchases. AIDA ends at the order. Extended versions add a stage after the purchase: AIDAS — satisfaction, AIDAR — retention.
- The buyer is already ready. Someone searching for an exact model by part number does not need attention and interest: they need the price, stock status and a button. A long AIDA text only gets in the way here.
Mistakes when using AIDA
- Attention at the cost of honesty. A loud headline that the product page does not back up brings clicks without carts: the attention stage "worked", and the ad money is gone.
- Interest built on vague words. "High quality" and "stylish design" say nothing. Interest comes from specific facts: size, material, what's in the box.
- Desire without proof. A benefit without reviews, a warranty or return terms sounds like a seller's promise.
- Several actions at once. "Buy", "Wishlist", "Compare" and "Subscribe" with equal weight — and the buyer does nothing.
- Fixing everything at once. You changed the headline, the description and the button together — and don't know what worked. Change one stage at a time.
When you need AIDA descriptions for thousands of products
Ten product pages can be rewritten by hand. When products arrive from supplier price lists by the hundreds, the supplier's description is usually a list of specs with no first line, no benefits and no call to action.
In Elbuz, product descriptions are written by the AI text generator, and you can set the structure with your own prompt: on the "Generation templates" tab, write the task "first sentence — the buyer's situation, then three facts from the specs, then warranty and shipping terms", with the catalog fields to fill in. A category can have its own template, and the "Test" button shows the result on one product without saving anything, so you check the structure before running it on the whole catalog. How it works is on the AI product description generator page.
Who doesn't need it: if you have a few dozen products and write each description yourself, the before-and-after table from this article is enough.
AI product description generatorDescriptions in your structure for a whole category, 14 days free
Frequently asked questions
What is the AIDA model?
It is a model for building an ad or a sale in four consecutive steps: attract attention, create interest, build desire and prompt action. Each step has its own job and its own metric.
What does AIDA stand for?
Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Extended versions add a fifth stage: AIDAS — satisfaction, AIDAR — retention.
Who introduced the AIDA model?
Traditionally, the American advertiser E. St. Elmo Lewis in 1898, according to Edward Strong's 1925 book. A 2024 study by Akinori Iwamoto questions this and names Arthur Frederick Sheldon as the author.
What is an example of the AIDA model in advertising?
A social media ad: the first line about the buyer's situation is attention, one fact about the product is interest, a benefit or condition is desire, the "Shop now" button is action. Worked examples of a product page and an ad are in the article.
Why is the AIDA model important?
It lets you build copy and pages in the order the buyer makes a decision, and use funnel numbers to find the stage where the most people drop off.
What is the difference between AIDA and SPIN selling?
AIDA describes how a text or a page leads a buyer to action and fits ads, product pages and quick sales. SPIN is a questioning technique for conversations in expensive and B2B sales, where the need has to be uncovered together with the customer.
Sources
- Strong, E. K. "The Psychology of Selling and Advertising". New York: McGraw-Hill, 1925, pp. 9, 349 — the source of the E. St. Elmo Lewis and 1898 version.
- Iwamoto, A. "The origin of AIDA: Who invented and formulated the AIDA model?" Japan Marketing History Review, 2024, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 150–166 — jstage.jst.go.jp.
Checked on October 31, 2026.
John
I wonder what specific steps are included in the AIDA methodology?