ad-frameworks git:20260504.5c78b23A

Immutable. This exact content is served forever at /api/v1/blob/667b0fbaaa399e89.

---
name: ad-frameworks
title: "Ad Frameworks — AIDA, PAS, BAB, 4Us"
description: "Compact playbook of ad copy frameworks (AIDA, PAS, problem-agitation-solution, before-after-bridge, 4Us, FAB) and when to apply each. Use when structuring the body of an ad — script, body copy, landing-page sections, or any persuasive piece. Includes a decision guide that matches framework to audience awareness level (Schwartz)."
license: Apache-2.0
compatibility: "Stack-agnostic. Pairs with skills/video-hooks (the open) and skills/content-voice (the words)."
domains: video content launch
rules:
  - content(advertisement)
  - content(copywriting)
  - match(\bads?\b)
  - match(\bad\s+(copy|creative|script|frame|funnel|account)\b)
  - match(\b(facebook|meta|tiktok|google|youtube|reddit|x|twitter|linkedin)\s+ads?\b)
  - match(\bpaid\s+(social|search|media)\b)
  - match(\bAIDA\b)
  - match(\bPAS\b)
  - match(\bproblem.agitation.solution\b)
  - match(\bbefore.after.bridge\b)
  - session(adcraft)
  - session(ugc)
---

# Ad Frameworks — AIDA, PAS, BAB, 4Us

## Overview

Strong ads aren't written from scratch — they're written into a framework that has been pressure-tested across millions of dollars of spend. The framework's job is to make the structure invisible: the viewer feels a story, the writer follows a checklist. This skill gives you the small set of frameworks that actually convert in 2026 short-form video and direct-response copy, plus a rule for which one to pick based on the audience's awareness level (Schwartz's five stages).

Pair with `video-hooks` for the open and `video-spec-sheet` for the platform constraints.

---

## Instructions

### Core Rules

- **Pick the framework before writing the script.** Trying to pick mid-draft means the writer reverts to default narration.
- **Every framework needs an explicit CTA.** Implicit "the offer is the rest of the video" loses ~30% conversion.
- **Match framework to audience awareness, not your preference.** A cold audience can't follow PAS — they don't yet feel the problem.
- **One framework per piece.** Mixing AIDA + PAS halfway through makes the piece muddled.
- **Specifics, not adjectives.** "47% faster" beats "much faster". Numbers, names, time spans.

### Framework Catalog

#### AIDA — Attention, Interest, Desire, Action

Old, durable, works for awareness-stage audiences.

| Beat | Job | Time in 30s ad |
|---|---|---|
| **A**ttention | Hook (see `video-hooks`) | 0–2s |
| **I**nterest | Reveal what's coming, plant curiosity | 2–8s |
| **D**esire | Show the outcome / transformation | 8–22s |
| **A**ction | Single, specific CTA | 22–30s |

**When to use:** brand-awareness ads, product launches to a wide audience, top-of-funnel.
**Avoid for:** retargeting, performance ads with sophisticated audiences.

#### PAS — Problem, Agitation, Solution

The workhorse of direct-response. Works when the audience already has the pain.

| Beat | Job | Time in 30s ad |
|---|---|---|
| **P**roblem | Name the pain, mirror the audience's frustration | 0–6s |
| **A**gitation | Twist the knife — show what happens if it's not solved | 6–18s |
| **S**olution | Reveal the fix, demo, prove | 18–26s |
| CTA | One specific action | 26–30s |

**When to use:** Performance ads, problem-aware to most-aware audiences, B2B.
**Avoid for:** broad awareness — cold audience tunes out the problem.

#### BAB — Before, After, Bridge

Transformation-driven. Strong for D2C, fitness, finance, productivity.

| Beat | Job |
|---|---|
| **B**efore | Show life with the problem (specific, sensory) |
| **A**fter | Show life without it (specific, sensory) |
| **B**ridge | The product / system that gets you there |

**When to use:** transformation products, weight-loss / finance / fitness / productivity, lifestyle.
**Avoid for:** pure information products (no transformation arc).

#### 4Us — Useful, Urgent, Unique, Ultra-specific

A copy-checking heuristic, not a structure. Apply to every claim in the piece.

| U | Question |
|---|---|
| Useful | Does this help the viewer? |
| Urgent | Why must they act now? |
| Unique | Why this product, not the 10 others? |
| Ultra-specific | Specifics over generics? |

A line that doesn't pass at least 2 of 4 should be rewritten.

#### FAB — Features, Advantages, Benefits

Translation engine. Use to convert a feature list into copy.

| Layer | Question | Example |
|---|---|---|
| **F**eature | What it has | "M3 Pro chip with 12-core CPU" |
| **A**dvantage | What it does | "Compiles 2x faster than M2" |
| **B**enefit | What it means for the user | "Ship code while the demo is still loading" |

**Rule:** the script lives at the **B**enefit layer. F and A are research notes.

#### Hook → Story → Offer (HSO)

The dominant short-form social structure.

| Beat | Job |
|---|---|
| Hook | First 1.5s (see `video-hooks`) |
| Story | One specific narrative — first-person, real or composite. ~70% of total runtime. |
| Offer | Product reveal + CTA, ~20% of runtime |

**When to use:** TikTok / Reels / Shorts UGC and creator-style ads. Default for short-form.
**Avoid for:** B2B explainer, anything where a story would feel forced.

### Audience Awareness — pick framework by stage (Schwartz)

| Awareness | Framework | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| **Unaware** (no problem felt) | HSO with curiosity hook | Cold audience won't sit through PAS |
| **Problem-aware** | PAS or BAB | They feel the pain, agitate it |
| **Solution-aware** | BAB or AIDA | They know solutions exist, differentiate |
| **Product-aware** | FAB-driven AIDA, with comparison | They know your category, why YOU |
| **Most-aware** (your fans) | Direct offer — skip framework, lead with deal | Don't sell to people who already bought |

### Workflow

1. **Identify audience awareness stage** from the brief (or ask — don't guess).
2. **Pick the framework** from the table above.
3. **Pre-write the offer** before the body — ensures the body builds toward something specific.
4. **Draft each beat**, time-boxed to the ad length.
5. **Run every claim through the 4Us check.**
6. **Read aloud at 1.5x speed.** If it sounds AI / scripted at speed, rewrite for natural cadence.
7. **Show the script with timestamps**, not just lines. Time is the unit, not paragraphs.

### Decision Guide

| Situation | Framework |
|---|---|
| TikTok / Reels organic UGC | HSO |
| TikTok / Reels paid ad, problem-aware audience | PAS |
| Meta paid ad, transformation product | BAB |
| YouTube pre-roll (5–15s) | HSO with hard cut at 3s + visible skip-friendly first beat |
| YouTube pre-roll (un-skippable, 15s) | PAS or AIDA, CTA in last 3s |
| Long-form explainer (60–180s) | AIDA with FAB-loaded D-beat |
| Landing page hero | Hook + 4Us-checked one-liner + CTA |
| Cold email | PAS, 75 words max |
| Retargeting / cart-abandon | Direct offer, no framework, lead with deal |

---

## Examples

### Example 1: PAS for a B2B SaaS TikTok ad (30s)

Product: An on-call alerting tool. Audience: backend engineers, problem-aware (their team uses PagerDuty + duct tape).

```
0–2  P  Hook: "Your on-call rotation is broken and your team knows it."
       (visual: phone going off at 3am, hand smacking the snooze)

2–8  P  "67% of pages last quarter were noise — the kind that wakes you up
       for a flapping check that auto-resolves before you log in."
       (visual: fast-cut alerts spamming a dashboard)

8–18 A  "Every false page costs $8 of engineer time and the next real one
       hits a tired brain. The third Tuesday in a row, you stop trusting
       the alerts entirely. That's when the real outage gets missed."
       (visual: someone dismissing alerts on a phone, then a prod outage)

18–26 S "Quietly groups duplicate alerts, runs a 30-second auto-heal, and
       only pages a human if the system is still on fire after that."
       (visual: dashboard going from red waterfall to one calm card)

26–30 CTA "10 days free. Set it up in 4 minutes. Link in bio."
       (visual: founder deadpan to camera)
```

### Example 2: HSO for a D2C creator UGC Reel (20s)

Product: A teeth-whitening pen. Audience: cold, scrolling.

```
0–1.5  Hook: "I tested 11 whitening pens for my wedding. Only one didn't
              wreck my enamel."
              (visual: line-up of pens, hand pushing 10 off-screen)

1.5–14 Story: "I'm 4 weeks out, panicking, and Sephora is full of strips
              that bleed at the gums. This one [show product] — bamboo
              applicator, no peroxide, results in 6 days. My dentist
              actually said 'whatever you're doing, keep doing it.'"
              (visual: morning routine, before/after, dentist text screenshot)

14–20  Offer: "20% off through the link, free returns if it doesn't work
              for you in 14 days."
              (visual: product on bathroom counter, hand pulling phone toward camera)
```

### Example 3: AIDA for a YouTube pre-roll (15s, un-skippable)

```
0–2  A  "Stop scrolling for 12 seconds. This will pay for itself."
2–6  I  "Most freelancers under-invoice by 23% and don't know it."
6–11 D  "We pulled the data from 4,000 freelance invoices. The fix is one
        rule. [show result]"
11–15 A "Free calculator at link. 60 seconds, no signup."
```

---

## References

- Eugene Schwartz, *Breakthrough Advertising* (1966) — the awareness-level model.
- David Ogilvy, *Ogilvy on Advertising* — the canonical book on long-form direct-response.
- [Meta Ads Library](https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/) — to study current top-spending ads.
- [TikTok Top Ads](https://ads.tiktok.com/business/creativecenter/topads) — by vertical and region.