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Why AIDA doesn't work, and what science says instead

Marketers have been drawing funnels for 125 years. Customers, meanwhile, decide rather differently: out of habit, lazily, and by whatever springs to mind first. Here is what the data says about brand growth, instead of the usual worn-out maxims.

Daniel Votruba · 6 July 2026 · 3 min read

A funnel from 1898

AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) is an idea from Elias St. Elmo Lewis, dated 1898, and it was written as a guide to personal selling. The salesman at the customer's door was meant to grab attention first, then stir interest and desire, and finally drive the action. For selling vacuum cleaners door to door it worked beautifully. As a description of how people buy today it is simply wrong.

The trouble is that people do not move through any linear funnel. The vast majority of our purchases are pure habit. We buy what we bought last time, what we know, what is within reach. The brain saves energy wherever it can and keeps careful deliberation for the mortgage. Certainly not for yoghurt, a SaaS licence or an agency.

What the data says: availability beats persuasion

The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute (Byron Sharp, How Brands Grow) measured dozens of categories and millions of purchases and concluded that brands grow on two levers:

  • Mental availability: the probability that a customer thinks of you at the moment of purchase. You build it with distinctive, consistent brand assets and broad reach.
  • Physical availability: how easily you can be found and bought. Distribution, visibility, buying without pointless obstacles.

Binet and Field (IPA, The Long and the Short of It) add the ratio. Long-term growth is driven by brand building, immediate sales come from activation, and for most categories the best mix sits around 60% brand, 40% activation. Companies that pour everything into performance campaigns are borrowing sales from the future, then wonder why their CAC keeps climbing.

Noise versus metrics

There are roughly 400 marketing concepts, frameworks and acronyms in circulation. Most are noise that mainly helps marketers look busy. The board cares about four numbers, and so should you:

  • Penetration: how many new customers you are adding. Brands grow mainly through penetration, not loyalty (Ehrenberg-Bass again, and it is an uncomfortably well-replicated finding).
  • Market share: your actual share, not how you feel about it.
  • Net sales: revenue after discounts.
  • Profit: the one metric the bank will accept.

You cannot book likes, video completions or MQLs into the P&L. They are supporting indicators. Use them to tune execution and they earn their place; turn them into the goal and they start doing damage.

What to do on Monday morning

1) Stop polishing the funnel and start tracking penetration and mental availability. 2) Split the budget between brand and activation deliberately, then defend the brand portion from the CFO. 3) Simplify buying: every extra click is a tax on physical availability. 4) A marketer should spend barely a fifth of their time on communication; the rest belongs to product, pricing and distribution.

And if all this sounds different from what your agency tells you, write to us. The first opinion is free and no meter runs on the first meeting.

Key takeaways (TL;DR)

  • AIDA was written in 1898 as a guide to personal selling. But people do not move through a linear funnel, and most purchases are simply habit.
  • Brands grow on two levers: mental availability (the customer thinks of you) and physical availability (they can easily find and buy you).
  • Split the budget between brand and activation deliberately, roughly 60/40. Pour everything into performance and you are borrowing sales from the future while your CAC rises.
  • The board cares about four metrics: penetration, market share, net sales and profit. Likes and MQLs do not make it into the P&L.

FAQ

Why doesn't the AIDA model work?

It assumes linear, rational decision-making. The data shows most purchases are habitual and governed by a brand's mental and physical availability. AIDA was written in 1898 for personal selling, not for how customers behave today.

What are mental and physical availability?

Mental availability is the probability that you think of a brand in a buying situation. Physical availability is how easily the brand can be found and bought. According to Byron Sharp these are the two main drivers of growth.

Does this apply to B2B as well?

Yes. The Ehrenberg-Bass B2B Institute (working with the LinkedIn B2B Institute) replicated the same patterns: 95% of the market is not buying right now, so the brand is built with future buyers, not with active demand.

Sources: Byron Sharp, How Brands Grow (Ehrenberg-Bass Institute) · Les Binet & Peter Field, The Long and the Short of It (IPA) · LinkedIn B2B Institute, The 95-5 Rule.