By Patrick Mumo
The most reliable copywriting formulas are AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action), PAS (Problem, Agitate, Solution), and BAB (Before, After, Bridge)—used for ads, emails, and sales pages, respectively. Below are all 10 proven formulas, what each does, and exactly when to use it.
Here’s a dirty little secret about professional copywriters.
They don’t stare at a blank page and wait for inspiration. They reach for a formula—a proven framework that maps the reader’s psychology and structures the argument before they write a single word.
That’s not laziness. It’s craft.
Copywriting formulas are cognitive maps built on decades of behavioral research. They work because human psychology hasn’t changed—people still want to avoid pain, pursue pleasure, and make decisions that feel safe. The formulas that have survived over a century of use are the ones that tap directly into those constants.
Here are the 10 you need to know, what each one does, and exactly when to use it.
| AIDA | General sales pages, ads, email campaigns | Attention → Interest → Desire → Action |
| PAS | Email copy, cold outreach, sales page openers | Problem → Agitate → Solution |
| BAB | Social ads, email campaigns, landing page heroes | Before → After → Bridge |
| FAB | Product pages, sales letters | Feature → Advantage → Benefit |
| 4 Cs | Editing/reviewing copy before publishing | Clear → Concise → Compelling → Credible |
| PPPP | Sales letters, landing pages, direct mail | Picture → Promise → Prove → Push |
| Slippery Slide | Sales letters, long-form landing pages | Philosophy—each line pulls the reader to the next. |
| OATH | Audience research, ad targeting, segmentation | Oblivious → Apathetic → Thinking → Hurting |
| QUEST | Long-form sales pages, webinars, lead magnets | Qualify → Understand → Educate → Stimulate → Transition |
| Star-Story-Solution | About pages, welcome sequences, video sales letters | Star → Story → Solution |
Why Formulas Work (And Why They Don’t Make Your Copy Generic)
A formula gives your copy a skeleton. Your voice, your offer, and your understanding of your reader are what give it flesh.
Think of it this way. A great chef doesn’t invent a new recipe from scratch every time they cook. They work within proven structures—and make them their own. The formula is the structure. Your specificity and insight are what make it memorable.
Elias St. Elmo Lewis introduced the AIDA formula in 1898—and it’s still standing. Copyhackers calls it one of the most well-known and used copywriting formulas existing today. Over a century later, AIDA remains a dominant framework in email marketing, landing pages, and advertising. AIDA endures because it mirrors the exact cognitive journey every buyer takes before deciding to buy.
That’s not a coincidence. That’s proof.
1. AIDA — Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
AIDA is the oldest and most widely used copywriting formula, mapping the four psychological steps a buyer takes from first noticing your message to acting on it.
- Attention—Stop the scroll. Grab the reader with a bold headline, a surprising stat, or a question they can’t ignore.
- Interest—Pull them deeper. Speak to their situation, their problem, or something they didn’t know before.
- Desire—Make them want what you’re offering. Paint the picture of the outcome. Use benefits, not features.
- Action—Tell them exactly what to do next. Be specific and remove every point of friction.
Best for: Email campaigns, landing pages, ads, and sales letters.
Example in action:
- Attention: “Your email list is bleeding money.”
- Interest: “Most business owners send emails that get opened—and ignored.”
- Desire: “What if every email you sent actually drove sales?”
- Action: “Hire a copywriter who writes emails that convert. [Book a call today →]”
2. PAS—Problem, Agitate, Solution
PAS is a three-step formula that leads with the reader’s pain point, intensifies it, and then resolves it with your offer—making it one of the most emotionally effective structures in short-form copy.
PAS works by speaking to the reader’s pain, then making that pain feel bigger before offering a solution. Instead of grabbing attention first, PAS starts by understanding how the reader feels.
- Problem—Name the problem clearly. The more specific, the better.
- Agitate—Twist the knife. What does this problem cost them? What happens if it goes unsolved?
- Solution—Present your offer as the answer. Keep it clear and direct.
Best for: Email copy, Facebook ads, cold outreach, and sales page openers.
Example in action:
- Problem: “Your blog posts aren’t ranking.”
- Agitate: “Every month they sit there—unread, unshared, invisible. Meanwhile, your competitors are pulling in thousands of visitors from the same topics.”
- Solution: “SEO blog writing built to rank and convert. [See how it works →].”
3. BAB—Before, After, Bridge
BAB sells the transformation rather than the product itself by contrasting the reader’s current situation against the outcome your offer makes possible.
- Before—Describe life with the problem. Make it vivid and relatable.
- After—Describe life after the problem is solved. This is the dream state.
- Bridge—Show your product or service as the path from Before to After.
Best for: Social media ads, email campaigns, and landing page hero sections.
Example in action:
- Before: “Your website gets traffic—but no leads. Your inbox stays empty.”
- After: “Imagine waking up to enquiry emails from pre-sold prospects who already trust you.”
- Bridge: “That’s what conversion-focused homepage copy delivers.”
4. FAB—Features, Advantages, Benefits
FAB translates a product’s technical features into the real-world benefits a reader actually cares about, moving beyond specs to significance.
Most business owners list features. FAB forces you to translate each one into the real-world benefit your customer actually cares about. Plexxie explains, “FAB takes you beyond what your product does to show why it matters to the person reading.”
- Feature—What it is or does
- Advantage—Why that matters
- Benefit—What it means for the customer’s life
Best for: Product pages, sales letters, and email copy for physical or digital products.
Example in action:
- Feature: “5-email welcome sequence”
- Advantage: “Nurtures new subscribers automatically over five days”
- Benefit: “So you build trust and make sales while you sleep—without touching your inbox.”
5. The 4 Cs—Clear, Concise, Compelling, Credible
The 4 Cs work as a quality filter rather than a writing structure—a checklist to run any finished piece of copy through before it’s published.
- Clear—Does the reader instantly know what you’re offering and who it’s for?
- Concise—Have you cut every word that doesn’t earn its place?
- Compelling—Does it make the reader want to keep reading and act?
- Credible—Does it back up its claims with proof, data, or social proof?
Best for: Editing and reviewing copy across all formats before hitting publish.
6. PPPP — Picture, Promise, Prove, Push
PPPP is direct-response legend Dan Kennedy’s four-step formula for building long-form persuasive copy from a vivid opening image through to an urgent call to act.
- Picture—Paint a vivid image of the outcome or the problem
- Promise—Make a clear, specific promise your offer delivers on
- Prove—Back it up with testimonials, data, or case studies.
- Push—Create genuine urgency and tell them to act now.
Best for: Sales letters, landing pages, direct mail, and long-form email campaigns.
7. The Slippery Slide
The Slippery Slide isn’t a step-by-step formula but a writing philosophy: structure every sentence so it pulls the reader irresistibly into the next one, all the way to the call to action.
Attributed to copywriter Joseph Sugarman, the idea is simple: every element of your copy exists to keep the reader moving to the next line. Your headline gets them to read the first sentence. The first sentence gets them to the second. And so on—all the way to the CTA.
Write your copy so it’s almost impossible to stop reading. Short sentences. Open loops. Questions that demand answers. Transitions that pull the reader forward.
Best for: Sales letters, long-form landing pages, and email body copy.
8. OATH—Oblivious, Apathetic, Thinking, Hurting
OATH isn’t a writing structure—it’s an audience-diagnosis framework. Use it to identify exactly how aware your reader is of their problem before you decide how to message them.
Before writing anything, identify where your reader sits on the OATH spectrum:
- Oblivious—They don’t know they have a problem. Educate first.
- Apathetic—They know the problem but don’t think it’s urgent. Agitate.
- Thinking—They’re actively looking for solutions. Compare and position.
- Hurting—They’re in pain and need relief now. Sell directly and urgently.
Best for: Audience research, ad targeting, email segmentation, and landing page messaging decisions.
9. QUEST—Qualify, Understand, Educate, Stimulate, Transition
QUEST is a five-step formula built for nurturing cold, skeptical audiences over a longer piece of copy rather than pushing for an immediate decision.
- Qualify—Filter for your ideal reader immediately.
- Understand—Show you get their problem intimately.
- Educate—Give them new, valuable insight they didn’t have before
- Stimulate—Build desire for the transformation your offer delivers
- Transition—Move them smoothly and naturally toward your offer
Best for: Long-form sales pages, webinar scripts, lead magnet copy, and long email sequences.
10. Star, Story, Solution
Star-Story-Solution is a narrative formula that sells through emotional connection, using a relatable character’s journey rather than a direct pitch.
- Star—Introduce a character (you, your customer, or a relatable persona)
- Story—Take them through the struggle—the before, the journey, the turning point
- Solution—Reveal how the product or service changed everything
Best for: About pages, email welcome sequences, video sales letters, and brand origin stories.
How to Choose the Right Formula
You don’t need to pick one and stick with it forever. You match the formula to the format, the audience awareness level, and the conversion goal.
- Match the formula to the format. Short-form ads and subject lines suit PAS or BAB. Long-form (sales pages, webinars) suits QUEST or PPPP.
- Match the formula to audience awareness. Use OATH first to diagnose where your reader sits, then pick a formula suited to that stage—AIDA for cold traffic, PAS for a reader who already feels the pain.
- Match the formula to your conversion goal. A single, decisive action (buy now) favors AIDA or PPPP. Trust-building over time favors Star-Story-Solution or QUEST.
As Thrive Themes notes, elite marketers don’t rely on one formula—they stack them. PAS for the hook. FAB for the body. AIDA for the close. That combination produces copy that feels natural to read but is carefully engineered to convert.
Final Word
The formula is the structure. Your research, your voice, and your understanding of the reader are what make it work. Start with AIDA and PAS if you’re new to this—they cover the majority of everyday copywriting needs—then layer in the others as your projects demand a different shape.
Want these formulas applied to your own sales page, emails, or blog? Work with Patrick Mumo →
Related Posts:
- What Is Copywriting? The Complete Guide for Beginners and Business Owners
- Copywriting vs Content Writing: What’s the Difference, and Which Do You Need?
- How to Write a Headline That Stops the Scroll
- What Makes a Great Call to Action—With 20 Real Examples
- How to Hire a Copywriter: What to Look For, What to Pay, and What to Avoid
Most experienced copywriters have internalized these structures so deeply they use them without thinking. But they all started by learning the frameworks consciously and applying them deliberately. Mastery comes from repetition, not memorization.
Absolutely. AIDA maps the fundamental psychological journey of a buyer—and that hasn’t changed in over a century. What changes is the medium and the speed. But attention, interest, desire, and action are still the four steps every conversion follows.
Yes—and you should. Many great sales letters use PAS to open, FAB to present the offer, and AIDA to close. Think of formulas as tools in a kit, not rules in a rulebook.
PAS and AIDA are the most effective for email. PAS works especially well for cold outreach and promotional emails because it leads with empathy. AIDA works well for launch sequences and nurture campaigns where you’re building a case over several paragraphs.
Start with The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert Bly and Influence by Robert Cialdini. Both are essential reading for any copywriter serious about their craft.
