1898 – AIDA Model
The AIDA model goes back to Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1898. He was an American advertising expert who wrote anonymously about the three principles of marketing that he found helpful for his own work.
St. Elmo Lewis originally wrote, “The mission of an advertisement is to attract a reader so that he will look at the advertisement and start to read it; then to interest him, so that he will continue to read it, then to convince him, so that when he has read it he will believe it. If an advertisement contains these three qualities of success it is a successful advertisement.”
At that time, he did not call it AIDA. Instead, this acronym was coined by C.P. Russell in 1921 in a publication called Printers Ink.
It is the oldest model for describing advertising impact in marketing and is considered the classic of all sales principles. In this step-by-step model, consumers go through four successive phases. The final phase is the purchase of a product or service.
The abbreviation AIDA stands for the respective sales phases
- A = Attention
- I = Interest
- D = Desire
- A = Action
Attention
The attention phase serves to address the desired target group with suitable marketing messages. Eye-catching, unusual or (for some) particularly appealing advertising messages are sent out to arouse the interest of potential customers.
Interest
By organizing suitable marketing measures, the attention of interested parties is
attention of interested parties. This can be achieved, for example, by packaging design or by placing advertising measures online or offline. The aim is to anchor the brand, the product or the service offered in the minds of prospective customers.
Desire
In this phase, interest turns into a concrete desire to purchase the advertised product. Marketing uses emotional or rational messages to achieve this.
The emotional level addresses the desire for social and societal recognition. By means of corresponding advertising messages, the potential buyer is suggested to increase his or her social status and to gain security or pleasure by purchasing the product.
The cognitive level addresses purely factual and rational advantages of the product, such as the special quality, durability and price advantage.
Action
The actual purchase is completed in this phase. For this purpose, the buyer is offered appropriate options – call-to-action (CTA) – to trigger the purchase. The stage model is completed when the purchase is finalised.
The first documented use case is the advertising of the company Uneeda Biscuit:
The then National Biscuit Company – now ‘Nabisco’ – is considered to be the first company to sell biscuits in cardboard boxes instead of jars or tins. Under the campaign slogan ‘Uneeda’, the company launched its first advertising campaign with a budget of one million dollars ‘Uneeda’ was made up of the English ‘You need it’. The campaign can be traced back to the AIDA model.
Learn more: https://americanbusinesshistory.org/uneeda-business-history-the-nabisco-story/
Attention
A paper box as packaging was very unusual at the time and immediately attracted the attention of potential customers.
Interest
Interest was aroused with the advertising message ‘Lest you forget, we say it yet, Uneeda Biscuit’.
Desire
The claim ‘Uneeda Biscuit’, i.e. ‘you need a biscuit’, was used to create a desire for the product.
Action
The next step was for customers to make a purchase. Then the hypothesis could be tested as to whether they really needed the biscuits.
1924 – The Funnel
William Townsend’s sales funnel is an extension of the AIDA model. In general, the model describes the process that prospective leads go through in order to become customers. For this purpose the funnel defines several phases. The aim is to trigger a final purchase or contract.
Here the extract of the book, where Townsend mention the funnel the first time.
„The salesman should visualize his whole problem of developing the sales steps as the forcing by compression of a broad and general concept of facts through a funnel; which produces the specific and favourable consideration of one fact. The process is continually from the general to the specific, and the visualizing of the funnel; has helped many salesmen to lead a customer from Attention to Interest, and beyond“
The funnel model (also known as the marketing funnel or sales funnel) is a classic concept in marketing that dates back to a publication by William Townsend in 1924. It is an extension of the AIDA model and describes the path of a potential customer from the first contact with a brand to the purchase. The model visualises how a broad audience is led step by step to a smaller group of customers who ultimately make a purchase decision.
Structure of the Funnel-Model
The funnel consists of several phases, which may differ slightly depending on the model. However, the classic version of the funnel typically comprises these four phases:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Consideration
- Action
Sometimes additional phases such as Loyalty and Advocacy are added to cover the entire customer life cycle.
Between the individual phases, potential interested parties are lost and and not all the remaining ones become customers. It is therefore important to design suitable campaign measures for the individual phases that address the needs of the needs of the personas to convert more interested parties into buyers. Suitable key figures must be defined in advance to identify optimization potential at an early stage and initiate appropriate measures.
Phases of Funnel-Model in detail
Awareness
- Objective: To make potential customers aware of the brand, product or service
- Measured variables: Reach, impressions, website traffic, click rate (CTR)
- Measures:
- Online-Advertising (e.g., Google Ads, Social Media Ads)
- Content-Marketing (e.g., Blog Posts, YouTube-Videos, Podcasts)
- SEO
- PR & Events
👉 Example: A company could launch a large-scale advertising campaign to draw the attention of a wide audience to a new product.
Interest
- Objective: To arouse the interest of the target group and encourage them to take a closer look at the brand or product.
- Measured variables: Time spent on the website, page views, number of followers, interactions in social media
- Measures:
- Landing Pages with detailed product information
- E-Mail-Marketing (e.g. Newsletter, E-Mail-Sequences)
- Social Media Interactions (e.g. surveys, comments)
- Webinars or Live-Demos
👉 Example: Prospective customers could be encouraged to find out more about the product and visit the company’s website through informative blog posts or social media posts.
Consideration
- Objective: Get potential customers to seriously consider the product and evaluate alternatives.
- Metrics: Number of leads, downloads of whitepapers or e-books, requests for product demos, clicks on CTA (call-to-action)
- Measures:
- Product comparisons, customer reviews and testimonials
- Free samples or demo versions (e.g. software trials)
- Discount campaigns and special offers
- Retargeting campaigns to address interested parties again
👉 Example: A potential customer could sign up for a free trial of a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) product to try out the features before making a purchase decision.
Action
- Objective: Encourage the potential customer to make a purchase or take the desired action (e.g. registration, contract).
- Metrics: Conversion Rate, Turnover, number of orders, average order value
- Measures:
- Checkout optimisation (e.g. simple payment processes)
- Personalised offers or last-minute discounts
- Email reminders for cancelled shopping baskets
- After-sales service (e.g. onboarding, customer support)
👉 Example: A company could send a discount code by e-mail to motivate customers to complete their purchase.
Enhancement: Loyalty & Advocacy
Over the years, two additional phases have been added to the four core phases in order to promote customer loyalty and word-of-mouth advertising:
Loyalty
- Goal: Customer loyalty through repeat purchases and long-term relationships.
- Measures: Loyalty programmes, regular newsletters, exclusive offers.
- Measured variables: Repurchase rate, customer lifetime value.
Advocacy
- Goal: To encourage satisfied customers to actively recommend the brand to others.
- Measures: Referral programmes, social media sharing, customer reviews.
- Measures: Net Promoter Score (NPS), number of recommendations, social shares.
Advantages of the funnel model
- Structured planning: Helps companies to develop their marketing strategies in a targeted manner and utilise resources efficiently.
- Measurability: Each funnel step can be measured using specific KPIs, which makes it easier to monitor success.
- Optimisation potential: Companies can specifically identify and improve weak points in the funnel.
Disadvantages of the funnel model
- Simplification: The model assumes that customers go through the purchasing process in a linear fashion, which is often not the case in reality.
- Lack of flexibility: Modern customer journeys are often more dynamic and complex, which the model cannot fully reflect.
Summary
The funnel model is a proven tool for systematically understanding and optimising the buying process. Although it is a simplified representation of the customer journey, it remains a useful concept for planning and measuring marketing strategies in a targeted manner. Companies can use the model to guide potential customers step-by-step from first contact to conversion – and also to build long-term relationships through loyalty and referral-programs.
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