AIDA. Attention, interest, desire, action.
A copy formula invented in 1898. And it still works.
I know, because I use it to fix underperforming direct response creative. Sometimes it moves results three times. Sometimes ten. Sometimes it opens up a whole new decile to target in the next campaign.
But every time, someone says the same thing. Oh yeah, AIDA, I have heard of that. Or, I have never used it like that before.
Why teams pay lip service to it
Most people have read about AIDA once or twice. They liked it. It made sense. But nobody ever showed them how to apply it.
So it becomes a thing teams nod at rather than a thing they build with.
Because applied AIDA means asking uncomfortable questions. Questions that scratch at what the reader’s real problem is.
It means putting the reader first. Writing with structure, not style. Organising an argument your reader will agree with.
I learned that the hard way, writing direct response ads in the back of the national press. A client would spend ten thousand pounds on a single page in the Daily Mail, and you either delivered a two to one return or you were out.
No vanity metrics. Just sales.
Seven years of making ads that had to pay for themselves every week will teach you to use a formula.
Not because I am stubborn. Because they work.
Captions do more work than you think
Here is the most underused tool in direct response.
David Ogilvy said more people read captions under illustrations than read the body copy. He was right, and there is a reason for it.
We have had the habit since school of scanning captions in textbooks. It is a shortcut to the important bit without reading everything.
Ads work the same way. People glance at the image, read the headline, and if they are still curious they scan the caption next, deciding whether this is worth their time.
Which makes the caption one of the deadliest tools you have. It lets you sneak in a persuasive message before the reader decides to bail. And it applies just as much to DRTV overlays and video subtitles as it does to print.
But most treat captions like an afterthought. Here is our product name. Woman with a big smile. As if we cannot see that already.
Confirming the obvious is a waste.
Use captions to say what the image can’t. Give a taste of what is in it for the reader. Even one line can move someone from casual skimmer to curious buyer.
If your captions aren’t doing that, what chance has the rest of your ad got?
Nobody reads ads
Howard Gossage said it best. Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them, and sometimes that is an ad.
That is what a formula does. It forces the writer and the designer to think about the reader. Not the brand. Not the product. Not the stakeholder.
Just the problem your reader wants solved.
Because if you do not control the reading process, you end up leading with what the brand cares about instead of what the reader does.
What was true in 1898 is true now.
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