AIDA, PAS, PASTOR

Copywriting formulas aren't templates you fill in. They're scaffolds that organize persuasion into a sequence the reader can follow. The three most useful. AIDA, PAS, and PASTOR, cover 95% of direct response situations. Learn all three; use each where it fits.

AIDA. Attention, Interest, Desire, Action

The oldest copywriting formula, usually credited to Elias St. Elmo Lewis (1898). A classic for a reason.

1. Attention. Get the reader to stop. Headline and opening lines.
2. Interest. Keep them. Show relevance to their situation. Hint at the benefit.
3. Desire. Make them want it. Build the case, benefits, proof, mechanism.
4. Action. Tell them exactly what to do next.

When to use AIDA

• Short-form direct response (landing pages, single ads)
• Cold audiences who need to be hooked and pulled through quickly
• Impulse or lower-consideration purchases

Example. B2B SaaS short-form landing page

A. Attention: "The #1 reason your reps miss quota isn't what you think."
I. Interest: "It's not leads. It's not tools. It's not motivation. It's the 14 minutes per day they spend on CRM hygiene. 67 hours a year, gone."
D. Desire: "Our customers eliminated that time using a single automation. Their reps closed 31% more in Q3 than Q2, same pipeline, same quota, 67 more hours of actual selling."
A. Action: "Book a 15-minute demo. Walk through the automation. See if it fits your stack."

PAS. Problem, Agitate, Solution

PAS is a favorite of mine. It goes deep on the problem before presenting the solution. The agitation creates the tension that the solution then releases.

1. Problem. Name the problem the reader is experiencing. Concrete and specific.
2. Agitate. Make it worse, consequences, costs, emotional stakes. The reader feels the problem more vividly.
3. Solution. Present your solution as the release.

When to use PAS

• Markets where prospects haven't fully admitted the problem
• Services / offers where pain is the primary motivator
• Sales pages for categories with strong emotional stakes
• Email subject lines and cold outreach

Example, email to underperforming e-commerce operators

P: "Your CAC went up 28% this year. You already know this. What you might not know, your top 3 SKUs now take 4 sessions to convert, not 2."

A: "Each of those added sessions costs you another $0.82 in paid traffic, another hit to creative fatigue, another risk of the buyer discovering a cheaper competitor mid-consideration. Over the next 12 months, that compounds to six figures in lost margin, and your Q4 plan doesn't account for it."

S: "The fix is a specific retention email sequence that caught 41% of those wandering buyers for our last 3 clients. We send it to you for free, no call required. Reply 'send' and it's in your inbox in 10 minutes."

The agitation rule

Don't just restate the problem louder. Agitation is about consequences. What happens if they don't fix it? What does Monday morning look like in 12 months? What do they feel at 11pm when the dashboard tells them the truth? Specificity in agitation is what separates PAS from whining.

PASTOR. Problem, Amplify, Story, Transformation, Offer, Response

An expansion of PAS, designed for longer-form direct response, sales letters, VSLs, long emails.

1. Problem. Same as PAS.
2. Amplify. Consequences of not solving.
3. Story / Solution. Tell the story of how the solution came to be, often autobiographical. The story proves the solution is earned, not theoretical.
4. Transformation / Testimony. What changes for the reader? Real customer cases showing the transformation.
5. Offer. The full offer stack, core product, bonuses, guarantee, price.
6. Response. The CTA, specific action, deadline, next step.

When to use PASTOR

• Long-form sales letters
• VSLs (video sales letters)
• High-ticket offers where the reader needs the full story before buying
• Coaching, courses, services, categories where trust and transformation matter

Why the story matters

The "S" in PASTOR is the difference between a mediocre long-form piece and a great one. Readers believe stories more than they believe claims. A specific founder's journey. "I was in your situation two years ago, here's what happened", builds identification in a way proof alone can't.

Which to use when

Context	Best formula
Short ad, impulse purchase	AIDA
Cold outreach email	PAS
Social ad → landing page	AIDA
B2B problem-aware email	PAS
Long-form sales letter (3000+ words)	PASTOR
VSL (20+ minutes)	PASTOR
Course / coaching launch sequence	PASTOR
Retargeting ad to warm audience	AIDA (shortened)

When to break the formula

Formulas are training wheels. Eventually you internalize the underlying structure, attention → interest → belief → action, and compose in whatever order fits the specific reader's journey. A/B testing will tell you whether you've earned the right to break the formula; if the numbers don't support it, go back to the scaffold.

The formulas don't replace thinking

A formula-filled piece of copy with a weak offer or a wrong market still fails. The formula organizes persuasion; it doesn't create persuasion out of nothing. If you're hitting a wall on the copy, the problem is usually upstream, offer, market, or dream customer, not the formula.

Related: The copywriting stack · Headlines · Fascination bullets