The human brain is an amazing instrument. It is great at filtering out what it perceives as irrelevant. This is why a person who lives near a railway isn’t aware of the passing train. It is also why people don’t take notice of most of the advertisements they encounter.

You need to design your ads to get noticed. You want them to be read. To do this you want the consumer to perceive the ad as relevant to them. You can achieve this by using the copywriting principle referred to as AIDA - Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.

Whether you are writing an advertisement for a brochure, your local newspaper, a direct mail flyer or even your website, the method is the same. Although it can be a challenge, it is important to follow the AIDA principle even for a miniscule ad, such as Google Adwords. You may not be able to list much information in a small ad but you still need to get the reader’s attention, whet their appetite and direct them to where they can get more information.

The first thing you want your ad to do is attract ATTENTION. You do this with an exciting benefit driven headline that entices the reader to stop and read more. If you don’t get the headline right, you have wasted your advertising money because no one will read the ad.

To develop a great headline you need to understand the benefits you product delivers. What is a benefit? It is the problem you product solves. It is the improvement the buyer will experience with your product. It is not the features of the product. Customers don’t care about features. What they want is to know what’s in it for them.

Use the headline to focus on one outstanding benefit of your product. Add hypnotic power words such as “how to” or “discover” and you have a headline that will attract.

Now that you have the reader’s attention, you need to use words to create emotion and INTEREST. This should tie into your headline. Love, fear, guilt, and pride are emotional factors that directly affect buying decisions. Keep these in mind when describing the benefits. Building interest in this way will create DESIRE.

The next step is to make an offer so irresistible that the customer can’t say no. How do you do this? Add value with a guarantee, time limited discounts, additional bonuses to act immediately. All you need to do now is to tell them exactly what ACTION they need to take, making it simple for them to take advantage of your offer. “Phone 000 111 222 now to order” or “Click here to buy now”. Include contact details and exact instructions.

Using AIDA along with an understanding of the benefits of your product will help your ads stand out in the marketplace.