Clickable links boost Photobucket application downloads 2500%

Here’s a snappy metric you might find interesting: the Photobucket Mobile application has seen downloads increase by close to 2500% by using a clickable links service. The service from GetJar is called App It!, and it provides a one-click download link for your app that will work for any phone, from any source.

What’s the story?

GetJar is the second largest app store in the world, and isn’t tied to any single device. It’s an independent store that carries free-to-download applications for any mobile device, from the very high-end to the very low-end. It is entirely advertising supported, so the more of your apps it “sells”, the more money it makes from advertisers. App It! seems to be a very functional way to increase those app downloads. And the service is, very simply, a clickable link.

If you upload an app to GetJar, you are provided with automatically generated “download link”. You can place that link anywhere you want – if a mobile browser clicks it, they’ll be directed to your application page on the GetJar servers. Your phone make and model is detected, and you get provided with a version of the app that you can use.

What’s the Photobucket news?

Photobucket is one of the mostly widely used photo-sharing services on the web – especially if you’re looking to quickly post an image to a message board. Downloads of the Photobucket app through GetJar have increased 2500% since they stared using App It! a few months ago, to the current figure of 638,502.

What we think?

From the Photobucket example, it would seem that a simple link is a very effective sales channel. It’s not entirely simply, though. A lot of work goes on in the back end to ensure that it appears to be a simple process for the end user. It follows the internet model of “I click it and then it works” – something which used to be sadly lacking on mobile, but has been getting better.