The AIDA Model: Is It Still Relevant? | Brafton

AIDA marketing is the OG of customer journey models, helping brands turn prospects into loyal buyers. Providing touchpoints for consumer behavior (attention, interest, desire and action) throughout the purchasing decision cycle, the AIDA framework is a good starting point for understanding the conversational interplay between a potential buyer and your messaging.

But today’s consumers expect a little something extra — whether that’s personalization, experience, genuine emotional connection or all of the above and some. And marketers must deliver. So, does the AIDA funnel still hold up, or has it been surpassed by more adaptable models? More importantly, what should you be doing about it? 

What Is the AIDA Model?

The AIDA model outlines the customer journey. It maps the cognitive stages from initial awareness to final purchase. This framework has a linear path, yet it’s historically been remarkably effective in capturing consumer behavior. Here’s how it works:

• Attention: The goal here is simple: Get noticed. In the attention economy, it’s the sensory cues like targeted messaging or compelling visuals that spark curiosity and establish a positive first impression.
• Interest: At this stage, the customer wants to learn more. They’ll explore the product or service and consider how it responds to their needs. Brands that provide emotional connection via storytelling or compelling value props can help turn curiosity into active engagement as the consumer projects how the offering moves them toward their goals.
• Desire: For interest to transform into desire, audiences want to feel seen, validated and important. It’s about evoking a deeper feeling — a desire to own or experience. Here, they’ll visualize how your product helps them meet a higher goal: status, wealth, beauty, acceptance, self-fulfillment — the list goes on. 
• Action: This is the tangible culmination of every previous stage. A consumer will feel motivated to take the leap — purchasing, signing up or taking action that converts awareness into transaction. 

But the customer journey is only half of the equation. A brand’s ability to meet consumers at each stage in the funnel and target messages accordingly is what propels audiences through the AIDA funnel. 

How Marketers Apply AIDA in Messaging Frameworks

The AIDA marketing model unlocks the inner workings of a customer’s process throughout the purchasing decision. Responsive messaging helps them understand what they need to know before converting. So, how do you apply the AIDA principle in your marketing efforts?

First Step: Attention

This is where brands must be able to purchase real estate in the minds of potential clients. Too often, marketers assume their target audience is already aware of their offering. But awareness is not automatic — you must actively capture it. 

Use creative disruption (also known as guerilla marketing) to break the monotony of everyday experiences. Placing messages in unexpected contexts compels the audience to stop and take notice. Provocative imagery, highly personalized messaging or even humor can disrupt the consumer’s environment, forcing them to acknowledge your brand. 

Second Step: Interest

Once you’ve gained attention, it’s time to hold it. Generating interest requires more than just serving information on a silver platter: You need to deliver it in a captivating way that responds to the context of your audience’s inquest. The first step in achieving this is defining your target audience. Find out who they are and why your product or service matters to them. Then, deliver visually engaging, easily digestible content that speaks directly to your potential buyer’s values and pain points.

While this is often the hardest part, personalizing your message to put the hero (your customer) at the center of their own success story (achieving their desired outcomes through your brand’s support) encourages deeper engagement and builds trust.

Third Step: Desire

Interest will naturally lead to desire once the consumer envisions themselves at the core of your offering. But that transition requires a strategic approach. At this stage, your job is to convince the consumer not only that they want the product, but that they need it. This is more an emotional need than a functional one.

Behind every desire for a product or service is something far more human: a desire for acceptance, connection, less stress, more time. Demonstrate how the product or service provides value beyond the superficial and emphasize the benefits that resonate emotionally. By connecting the product to a consumer’s broader aspirations, your message cultivates a greater sense of urgency in acquiring it.

Fourth Step: Action

The final stage in the AIDA marketing framework is where all your efforts culminate. This is where you shoot for a well-timed and meticulously crafted call to action (CTA). Make it clear and compelling, and inject a sense of immediacy.

Without urgency, even the most convincing desire can fade. Challenge your audience to take the necessary steps toward their desired outcome — whether it’s a purchase, sign-up or other engagement. At this point, surgically remove all notions of suggestion; the message should make people move.

Granted, consumers are more savvy about their role in the economy these days. Thanks to emerging tactics like social media expanding reach, generative AI scaling outputs and predictive AI enhancing capacity for personalization, brand messaging is louder and more cluttered than before. But this doesn’t necessarily make the AIDA funnel defunct. Rather, it’s time to look at it through a different lens.

AIDA’s Pros and Cons

The AIDA model remains a cornerstone of marketing strategy because it encapsulates the core dynamics of the customer journey. Its simplicity is a strength — marketers can easily map it to their messaging and goals, ensuring clarity at every stage. Yet, it’s not without its limitations. Let’s explore the pros and cons of the AIDA funnel in a modern context:

AIDA Pros

• Customer journey focus: AIDA provides a clear structure to understand and chart the customer journey, focusing on the progression from awareness to action. This allows marketers to develop targeted strategies at each stage.
• Simple and clear: Its straightforward, no-frills framework makes it easy to grasp and apply. This simplicity aids in aligning team efforts and tracking campaign progress effectively.
• Versatile: AIDA’s simplicity means it’s adaptable across various platforms and industries. It works for everything from digital ads to traditional marketing channels, making it reliable.
• Goal-oriented: The model is focused on achieving specific outcomes — conversion and action. This clarity helps marketers focus on the end game and adjust as necessary to drive desired actions.

AIDA Cons

• Linear: The AIDA model assumes a linear journey, which doesn’t reflect modern consumers’ multifaceted processes. Customer engagement is now rarely a one-way path.
• Oversimplified: It doesn’t fully account for the granular touchpoints where brands and consumers form ongoing relationships. Brands must engage customers in ways that AIDA does not fully explore.
• Lack of personalization: In today’s market, personalization is key. AIDA lacks mechanisms for deepening consumer relationships, which are critical for long-term loyalty and sustained engagement. 

As audience expectations evolve, brands must understand that a one-size-fits-all model like AIDA might no longer suffice. Customers now want personalized, context-driven engagement at every stage. Brands must respond with greater agility — adapting messaging and engagement tactics so individualized waypoints lead to more profound interactions.

Variations of the AIDA Model

• AIDCAS (Attention, Interest, Desire, Confidence, Action, Satisfaction): This variation builds on AIDA by adding confidence and satisfaction. Recognizing that customer trust and post-purchase satisfaction are integral to retaining customers, AIDCAS better captures audiences’ needs for brand relationships.
• REAN (Reach, Engage, Activate, Nurture): REAN nurtures long-term customer engagement. It emphasizes ongoing communication, engagement and activation, ensuring that brands also focus on cultivating lasting relationships.
• NAITDASE (Need, Attention and Interest; Trust, Desire and Action; Satisfaction and Evaluation): NAITDASE reflects how branded “pillow talk” builds consumer trust before and after purchase. This model expands beyond mere action to include continuous evaluation and satisfaction, capturing the complexities of post-purchase behavior.

Examples of AIDA in Action

So, how does AIDA work in the real world? Let’s take a look at some recent examples of brand giants using the framework to nurture the customer journey. 

Netflix: Setting Up the CTA Early

As Netflix caught the wave of early uptake digital streamers, facing competition with the likes of Amazon Prime and HBO Go, it captured attention by offering a free trial. Users could access its streaming platform for a limited time, where they discovered a broad selection of high-quality content. This stage sparked interest when prospects delved into free entertainment across movies and series on demand. Desire increased as audiences experienced the value of personalized content recommendations based on individual preferences. 

Until the trials ran out, that is. 

The brand set its potential customers up perfectly for a well-timed call to action — probably somewhere in the middle of a series — compelling them to create an account (at least to see the season finale). Netflix stopped offering free trials circa 2020. But by then, it’d already cemented its place in the market as a reputable provider. 

L’Oreal: Creating Desire Through Education

If you’ve ever worn liquid eyeliner, you’ll know it’s not as easy to apply as the girl working at your local market makes it look. L’Oreal understands this. The brand also understands that a large segment of its prospects turns to reels or YouTube videos to improve their application. 

The brand set up an inbound marketing funnel with short- and long-form makeup tutorials across TikTok and YouTube. These videos not only draw attention to L’Oreal’s product range — they transform it into interest and desire pretty quickly as the audience sees how easily products can be applied. The challenge here is converting audiences to L’Oreal’s specific brand, which is made easier by nurturing trust with valuable content upfront.

Choosing the Right Messaging Model for Your Brand

AIDA’s simplicity and goal-oriented focus made it invaluable in an era when consumer interactions with brands were more straightforward. However, as consumer expectations grow more sophisticated, AIDA’s linearity and lack of personalization become limitations.But this doesn’t mean you should steer away from AIDA. Nor does it necessarily mean you should dive into any other framework listed here. Rather, it’s a challenge to follow your customers and respond to their journey. Ultimately, embracing a more agile and personalized approach will help you build lasting relationships — which hold far more long-term value than a simple close.