While marketers chase shiny new strategies and platform-specific tactics, the most successful campaigns are still built on a framework older than the automobile.
The AIDA Autopsy: Why This 120-Year-Old Framework Still Kills Modern Campaigns. We have all used this at one time or another and it stands the test of time
Post by Peter Hanley Coachhanley.com
Every few years, marketing gurus declare AIDA dead. “It’s too linear,” they argue. “Modern customers don’t follow predictable paths,” they insist. “Digital has changed everything,” they proclaim. Meanwhile, the brands achieving the most impressive results—from Tesla’s product launches to Netflix’s binge-worthy content strategy—are quietly following the same four-step formula that Elias St. Elmo Lewis outlined in 1898.
The irony is delicious. In an industry obsessed with innovation and disruption, the most enduring framework predates electricity in most homes. However, this doesn’t mean AIDA hasn’t evolved. Rather than being replaced by digital transformation, it has been enhanced by it. Consequently, understanding how to apply AIDA principles to modern marketing channels isn’t just useful—it’s essential for breakthrough campaign success.
Let’s perform an autopsy on AIDA to discover why this seemingly ancient framework continues to outperform flashier alternatives, and more importantly, how to weaponize it for contemporary marketing challenges.
The Anatomy of Timeless Psychology
Before diving into modern applications, we must understand why AIDA has survived while countless marketing frameworks have been forgotten. The answer lies in something deeper than tactics or channels: human psychology.
AIDA isn’t really a marketing framework—it’s a map of how human brains process new information and make decisions. First, we notice something (Attention). Then, we evaluate whether it’s relevant to us (Interest). Next, we imagine how it might improve our lives (Desire). Finally, we overcome inertia to do something about it (Action).
This sequence reflects fundamental cognitive processes that haven’t changed despite technological advancement. Furthermore, these stages correspond to different brain regions and neurochemical responses. Attention engages the reticular activating system. Interest activates pattern recognition. Desire triggers emotional reward centers. Action requires overcoming the brain’s natural resistance to change.
Therefore, any marketing approach that ignores these psychological realities is fighting against millions of years of evolution. Conversely, campaigns that align with this natural mental progression tap into cognitive flows rather than swimming against them.
The Digital Evolution: AIDA 2.0
While the psychological foundation remains constant, the channels and tactics for triggering each stage have exploded. Moreover, the timeline has compressed dramatically. Instead of weeks or months between stages, modern customers can move through the entire AIDA sequence in minutes or even seconds.
Additionally, the process has become more cyclical than linear. Customers might loop back to the Interest stage after taking an initial Action, or develop Desire before fully understanding what they’re interested in. Nevertheless, the fundamental sequence still governs successful persuasion.
Attention: The New Scarcity Economy
In Lewis’s era, capturing attention meant placing ads in the limited available media. Today, attention is simultaneously more abundant and more scarce. Subsequently, brands have unprecedented access to potential customers, but each individual’s attention is fragmented across countless channels and distractions.
The Modern Attention Challenge: The average person encounters over 10,000 brand messages daily. Consequently, breaking through this noise requires either superior creativity, perfect timing, or laser-focused targeting—preferably all three.
What Works Now:
- Pattern Interruption: Subverting expectations in familiar contexts
- Personalization at Scale: Using data to create relevance for specific audiences
- Emotional Hooks: Triggering immediate emotional responses that override rational filtering
- Social Proof: Leveraging existing relationships and communities
- Multi-Modal Approaches: Combining visual, auditory, and interactive elements
Case Study Success: Dollar Shave Club’s launch video didn’t just capture attention—it demolished the traditional razor marketing playbook. Instead of focusing on blade technology, they created a pattern interrupt with irreverent humor and direct pricing transparency. The video generated 26 million views and 12,000 customers in the first 48 hours precisely because it violated expectations for the category.
Case Study Failure: Google+ launched with massive advertising spend and impressive features, but failed to capture sustained attention because it looked and felt too similar to existing social platforms. Without meaningful differentiation in the attention stage, subsequent AIDA stages became irrelevant.
Interest: From Broadcasting to Conversation
Traditional interest-building relied on one-way communication: brands told stories, shared features, and explained benefits. However, digital platforms have transformed this into dynamic conversations where customers actively participate in developing their own interest.
The Engagement Evolution: Modern interest isn’t just about providing information—it’s about creating experiences that allow customers to discover relevance for themselves. Furthermore, social media has made interest-building social, with customers influencing each other’s interests through comments, shares, and discussions.
What Works Now:
- Interactive Content: Tools, quizzes, configurators, and experiences that let customers explore
- Educational Sequences: Progressive disclosure of valuable information over time
- Community Building: Creating spaces where customers develop interest through peer interaction
- Storytelling with Data: Using metrics and evidence to build credibility alongside narrative
- User-Generated Exploration: Enabling customers to create and share their own interest-building content
Case Study Success: HubSpot built interest not through product demos, but through educational content that helped marketers solve problems whether they used HubSpot or not. Their blog, courses, and certification programs created sustained interest by delivering immediate value. Consequently, when prospects were ready to buy marketing software, HubSpot was already the trusted authority.
Case Study Failure: Quibi invested $1.75 billion in content creation but failed to build sustainable interest because their value proposition wasn’t clear or compelling. Despite star power and production values, audiences couldn’t understand why they needed another video platform. Without genuine interest, even massive attention couldn’t drive success.
Desire: The Emotional Transformation
Desire is where rational evaluation meets emotional longing. It’s not enough for customers to understand your product—they must viscerally want the transformation it promises. Moreover, in competitive markets, desire often differentiates more than features or pricing.
The Aspiration Engine: Modern desire-building focuses less on product attributes and more on identity transformation. Customers don’t just want products—they want to become the type of person who uses those products. Additionally, social media has amplified the role of lifestyle signaling in purchase decisions.
What Works Now:
- Lifestyle Integration: Showing how products fit seamlessly into desired lifestyles
- Before/After Narratives: Demonstrating clear transformations that customers can envision for themselves
- Social Currency: Creating products and experiences that enhance social status or identity
- Scarcity and Exclusivity: Triggering loss aversion and competitive desire
- Sensory Experiences: Using rich media to help customers imagine ownership
Case Study Success: Peloton built desire not around exercise equipment, but around joining an elite fitness community. Their marketing focused on transformation stories, instructor personalities, and the social experience of working out from home. As a result, customers desired the lifestyle and community membership more than the bike itself.
Case Study Failure: Google Glass generated significant desire among tech enthusiasts but failed to create mainstream desire because the value proposition required too much imagination. The gap between the promised transformation and the demonstrated reality was too large for most consumers to bridge emotionally.
Action: Friction as the Ultimate Enemy
The final stage of AIDA is where most campaigns fail. Even with perfect attention, interest, and desire, customers won’t act if the process is complicated, unclear, or risky. Therefore, modern action optimization focuses obsessively on removing friction and reducing perceived risk.
The Conversion Revolution: Digital channels have enabled unprecedented measurement and optimization of the action stage. A/B testing, user experience analysis, and behavioral tracking allow brands to systematically remove barriers to action. However, this has also raised customer expectations for seamless experiences.
What Works Now:
- One-Click Simplicity: Reducing action to the smallest possible commitment
- Risk Reversal: Guarantees, trials, and return policies that reduce perceived risk
- Social Proof at Point of Action: Reviews, testimonials, and usage statistics that provide final reassurance
- Urgency Without Desperation: Creating appropriate time pressure without seeming manipulative
- Progressive Commitment: Starting with small actions that lead to larger ones
Case Study Success: Amazon’s one-click purchasing revolutionized e-commerce by eliminating the friction between desire and action. Furthermore, their recommendation engine creates multiple action opportunities within a single session. Prime membership adds urgency (free shipping) while reducing friction (no shipping costs to consider).
Case Study Failure: Many cryptocurrency platforms generated enormous attention, interest, and desire during the 2021 boom but failed to convert because the action stage was too complicated. Setting up wallets, understanding private keys, and navigating exchanges created too much friction for mainstream adoption.
The Multi-Channel AIDA Orchestra
Modern campaigns rarely rely on single channels to move customers through AIDA. Instead, successful brands orchestrate multi-channel experiences where different platforms handle different stages of the funnel.
The Channel Ecosystem: Social media might capture attention, email sequences might build interest, video content might develop desire, and optimized landing pages might drive action. Furthermore, customers might encounter these touchpoints in any order, requiring campaigns to be flexible rather than rigidly sequential.
Platform-Specific AIDA Applications
TikTok/Instagram Reels: Perfect for attention-grabbing through entertainment, with limited space for interest and desire development. Action typically happens off-platform.
LinkedIn: Effective for attention through thought leadership, interest through educational content, desire through case studies, and action through direct outreach.
Email Marketing: Excellent for nurturing interest over time, building desire through storytelling, and driving action through personalized calls-to-action.
YouTube: Powerful for attention through thumbnails and titles, interest through educational content, desire through demonstration, and action through description links.
Search Advertising: Captures existing interest and desire, focusing primarily on removing friction from action.
The Modern AIDA Mistakes
Despite its simplicity, brands consistently misapply AIDA in predictable ways:
Mistake 1: Skipping Stages
Many campaigns jump directly from attention to action, forgetting that customers need time and information to develop interest and desire. Consequently, conversion rates suffer because the emotional foundation hasn’t been built.
Mistake 2: Wrong Channel for Wrong Stage
Using platforms optimized for attention (like TikTok) to drive immediate action, or using action-focused channels (like Google Ads) to build initial awareness.
Mistake 3: Ignoring the Feedback Loop
Treating AIDA as purely linear instead of recognizing that action often leads to new attention cycles, with customers becoming advocates who generate attention for others.
Mistake 4: Measuring Too Early
Optimizing for attention metrics (impressions, reach) without tracking whether that attention converts to meaningful business outcomes.
Mistake 5: Emotional Mismatch
Creating attention-grabbing content that doesn’t align with the desire you’re trying to build, confusing customers about what transformation you’re actually offering.
Advanced AIDA: The Psychological Triggers
Beyond basic implementation, sophisticated marketers layer psychological principles onto the AIDA framework:
Attention + Pattern Recognition: Using familiar elements in unexpected ways to trigger both notice and rapid comprehension.
Interest + Curiosity Gap: Creating information gaps that compel audience engagement to resolve.
Desire + Social Proof: Combining aspiration with evidence that others have achieved the desired transformation.
Action + Loss Aversion: Framing action as preventing loss rather than just gaining benefit.
AIDA in the Age of AI and Automation
Artificial intelligence and marketing automation haven’t replaced AIDA—they’ve supercharged it. Machine learning algorithms can now optimize each stage with unprecedented precision:
AI-Powered Attention: Algorithms analyze millions of creative variations to identify attention-grabbing elements for specific audiences.
Automated Interest: Chatbots and email sequences can adapt interest-building content based on individual engagement patterns.
Personalized Desire: Recommendation engines create individualized desire by showing products in contexts most relevant to each customer.
Optimized Action: A/B testing platforms continuously refine action steps to minimize friction and maximize conversion.
However, the fundamental psychological framework remains human. AI simply helps apply AIDA principles more effectively at scale.
The Future-Proof Framework
While marketing tactics evolve constantly, AIDA’s psychological foundation ensures its continued relevance. Voice commerce, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and whatever comes next will require new tactics but the same psychological sequence.
The key insight is that AIDA isn’t about specific channels or techniques—it’s about respecting how human brains process information and make decisions. Therefore, any future marketing innovation that ignores these psychological realities will ultimately fail, regardless of its technological sophistication.
Furthermore, as marketing becomes increasingly automated and algorithmic, understanding AIDA provides a psychological framework for evaluating whether new technologies and tactics will actually work with human nature rather than against it.
Implementing Modern AIDA: Your Action Plan
Step 1: Audit Your Current Funnel Map your existing marketing activities against AIDA stages. Identify where you’re strong, where you’re weak, and where you have gaps.
Step 2: Assign Channels to Stages Determine which platforms and tactics are best suited for each AIDA stage based on their strengths and your audience behavior.
Step 3: Create Stage-Specific Content Develop content specifically designed to move customers from one AIDA stage to the next, rather than trying to accomplish everything in every piece.
Step 4: Build Transition Mechanisms Create clear pathways that guide customers from attention to interest, interest to desire, and desire to action.
Step 5: Measure Stage Progression Track not just final conversions, but movement between AIDA stages to identify optimization opportunities.
Step 6: Test and Iterate Continuously experiment with new ways to improve each stage while maintaining the overall psychological flow.
The brands that dominate the next decade won’t be those with the most sophisticated technology or the biggest budgets. Instead, they’ll be the ones that combine timeless psychological principles with modern execution capabilities. In other words, they’ll be the ones that truly understand why AIDA has survived for 120 years and will likely survive for 120 more.
The future of marketing isn’t about replacing proven frameworks—it’s about applying them more intelligently than your competition.
At Michael Cheneys Millionaires apprentice all these points are considered and applied in the action plan