AIDA
The classic copy sequence: grab attention, hold interest, build desire, ask for the action. The best-known sales-page checklist.
See it
What it is
AIDA is one of the oldest and best-known structural formulas in advertising: Attention (stop them), Interest (make it relevant to their situation), Desire (make them want the outcome, with proof), Action (tell them exactly what to do next). Credited to Elias St. Elmo Lewis around 1898, and still a common skeleton for a landing page, a sales email, or a 30-second spot. It is one framework among several, not a law of persuasion.
Reach for it when you have all the raw material and no order. Map each letter to a real slot: attention is the headline and hero image, interest is the subhead plus the problem statement in the reader's own words, desire is benefits with evidence (testimonials, numbers, demo), action is one unambiguous CTA. Variants add letters where the sale needs them: AIDCA inserts Conviction before action, AIDAS adds Satisfaction after it.
Gotcha: AIDA assumes a linear funnel that real buyers do not walk. People land mid-page from search, bounce to reviews, and come back three days later. Treat it as a checklist for what must be present, not a rule that each stage happens once and in order. Its failure mode is copy that spends 400 words building 'desire' before ever saying what the product is. Compare PAS and Before-After-Bridge when the pain, not the promise, is the stronger entry point.
Ask AI for it
Write landing page copy for [product] aimed at [audience] using the AIDA structure, and label each section. Attention: one headline under 12 words naming the outcome, not the product category. Interest: a subhead plus two sentences stating the reader's current problem in their own words. Desire: three benefit blocks, each pairing a benefit with concrete proof (a number, a customer quote, or a specific capability). Action: one CTA with the exact button text and one line removing the risk of clicking. Say what the product is by the second sentence. No hype adjectives, no filler.