Spot the Missing Stage: AIDA & PAS Copy Teardown
Objective: Evaluate two synthetic sales copy drafts (a cold outreach email and a social ad) to identify where psychological stages are skipped, diagnose the conversion impact of weak transitions, and distinguish real structural defects from deliberate, effective copy choices.
You're reviewing inbound sales enablement and ad copy at Slack (acquired by Salesforce for $27.7B). The growth team is testing copy to convert enterprise teams away from fragmented email threads into Slack channels. You've received two draft specimens from junior copywriters: a cold email claiming to use PAS, and a sponsored LinkedIn post attempting AIDA. Both are underperforming.
Audit both specimens against the core AIDA and PAS frameworks. Identify every structural defect (such as skipping the Agitate stage or using generic Action CTAs), explain the exact conversion risk, reference the violated lesson concept, and verify that deliberate techniques are not falsely flagged as errors.
Before you start
What you'll need
Free path (everything below is enough to finish)
Clean text markup without account friction
The process
Specimens to review
This outbound email was drafted for a warm, problem-aware audience using PAS. Identify all structural defects, rate their severity, and name the violated lesson concept. Note any non-defects you chose not to flag.
SUBJECT: Fix your team communication with Slack Hi Sarah, Are you tired of cluttered email inboxes and slow response times among your engineering leads? Slack offers 2,600+ app integrations, enterprise-grade channel security, and real-time audio huddles that let your team connect instantly. Over 750,000 businesses use Slack to communicate every day. You can sign up for a trial on our website whenever you have a moment. Best, The Outbound Team [Learn more]
Specimen: synthetic, realistic
This LinkedIn feed ad was drafted using AIDA for cold prospect traffic. Spot all structural defects preventing it from converting cold prospects.
HEADLINE: Modern Collaboration Software for High-Growth Teams Managing remote developers is challenging when communication gets lost across timezones. Our platform centralizes discussions and speeds up code deployment cycles by 35%. Click below to explore our enterprise tier options. [Click here]
Specimen: synthetic, realistic
Final deliverable
A completed teardown score sheet with defects categorized by severity and lesson concept references, plus identified effective patterns.
See a reference example
NOTION — INBOUND AD COPY TEARDOWN
SPECIMEN: "All-in-one workspace for your team docs and wiki. Stop wasting time looking for files. Sign up today."
DEFECT 1 (Severity: Critical | Ref: AIDA, Four Stages: Step 1, Attention)
Opening line states a feature category rather than a hook that stops the scroll. Lacks an arresting stat, provocative question, or customer-centric insight.
DEFECT 2 (Severity: Critical | Ref: PAS, Three Stages: Step 2, Agitate)
Problem ('wasting time looking for files') leaps straight to Solution without Agitation. No visceral articulation of context-switching friction or delayed project launches.
DEFECT 3 (Severity: Moderate | Ref: Common Mistakes: Mistake 2, Using a generic Action in AIDA)
'Sign up today' is generic. Better: 'Try Notion free with your team — no credit card required.'
DISTRACTOR VERIFICATION:
The phrasing 'All-in-one workspace' is clear positioning, not a defect.Success criteria
You're done when you can:
- Identifies missing Agitate stage in the PAS specimen
- Pinpoints generic headline and CTA placeholder in the AIDA specimen
- Accurately separates real structural flaws from intentional copy choices