Google's "41 Shades of Blue" & the Impact of Color in CTAs

Some days in web design feel like déjà vu with a side order of eye strain. You settle into your chair, caffeine nearby, eyes flicking between screens as swathes of pixels parade past in a blur of blues, greens, and a few suspiciously off-pink oranges. After a few hours, everything on the page—colours, buttons, headings—merges into a soup. At this point, you start to question if that "slightly different" blue button you just applied is any better than the last, or if you’ve completely lost the plot.

These tiny details, the ones you glaze over when you're three coffees deep, actually decide how real people use your website. When it comes to CTAs (Call to Action buttons for the uninitiated), button colour matters; it might be the most hotly contested pixel you’ll ever place.

Why This Matters

Let’s cut to the chase. Picking the right CTA colour is rarely a creative indulgence. It directly affects revenue. If your main sign-up or buy-now button blends into the page, users might miss it entirely. If your web page’s important button stands out for all the right reasons, click-through rates can soar.

Here’s what this costs you right now:

• Lower conversions = fewer sign-ups, sales, or leads
• Users wandering off without completing actions
• Wasted advertising spend (why pay to send traffic to a page if only a tiny percentage take action?)

Google famously spent weeks running tests on 41 variants of blue just to see which shade would make their links more clickable. Even small differences in colour can mean the difference between a million and two million clicks. On Google’s scale, that's not pocket change.

So, precise button colour choices matter to everyone, not just big tech. The difference could mean hundreds or thousands of extra conversions a year for you.

Common Pitfalls

The field is full of “designer blue” fans and “that’s the brand red” loyalists, and I’m not here to rain on their parade. But when it comes to CTAs, there are some mistakes that crop up repeatedly:

1. Going With Personal Taste
   Your favourite shade might be Pantone-perfect, but your users might not even notice it (or, worse, might not trust it).

2. Misunderstanding Colour Psychology
   Colours have emotional baggage. Blue conveys calm and trustworthiness. Red projects urgency but can signal danger. Green is calming, unless you’ve made it the same colour as grass stains, in which case it just looks odd.

3. Ignoring the Context
   The best-looking CTA in isolation can disappear completely when dropped onto a real web page. That lush “trust blue” on a bright blue background is as effective as a camouflage jacket in a snowstorm.

4. Assuming ‘One Size Fits All’
   What works for Google does not automatically work for your SaaS site, e-commerce store, or local bakery. “Best practice” only takes you so far.

5. Blindly Following Trends
   Just because “everyone’s doing neon gradients” this year does not guarantee your users will appreciate being visually assaulted.

If you’ve ever shipped a design to a client and had them question why the “contact” button isn’t mauve, you’ll know how quickly all logic can go out the window.

Step-by-Step Fix

Below, I’ll walk you through practical steps to take back control of your CTAs, helping you, the client, and the people actually using your website all succeed.

Step 1: Get Clear on Your CTA's Job

Before dashing out the blue paint pot, stop and ask: what do you want users to actually do here? Maybe it’s “Buy Now”, “Sign Up”, “Download”, or something else entirely. The clearer you are, the easier it’ll be to design something that does the job.

Checklist:

• Decide what action matters most on the page
• Put ONE primary CTA on each main screen and avoid giving users a shopping list of choices

Step 2: Consider the Background and Context

Here’s a bold claim: what works beautifully on a white background turns into a puddle of sadness on a photo-heavy hero section. A CTA colour needs to contrast enough that any sleep-deprived visitor sees it in 0.2 seconds flat.

Checklist:

• Drop a range of candidate colours onto your real-life page layouts
• Test the contrast with accessibility tools (aim for at least AA level contrast)
• View your CTA on both desktop and mobile, in good and questionable lighting (if you’ve ever tried browsing on a sunlit phone, you’ll know what I mean)

Step 3: Tame the Colour Wheel With Research

Google’s approach involved rigorous testing, and you can borrow their method while staying practical.

Checklist:

• Look at basic colour psychology (cool for trust, warm for urgency)
• Do a “neighbourhood watch”: what CTA colours do competing websites in your niche use?
• Sketch out 3 to 6 distinct colours to test, even if some feel “wrong” at first glance (surprises happen)

Step 4: Run Proper A/B Tests

Now it’s time for the bit everyone skips. Don’t leave this to gut feeling alone: test your hypotheses out in the wild.

Checklist:

• Set up split testing (any decent web platform supports this, or grab Google Optimize while it lasts)
• Measure CTR (click-through rates) and conversion rates, not just which button “looks prettier”
• Let the test run until you have a few hundred visitors at minimum, so the result is statistically significant—not just based on anecdote

Step 5: Review and Evolve

Congratulations, your button now pulls its weight. Nothing in web design stays “done” for long, so be prepared to revisit.

Checklist:

• Once you choose a winning colour, document it (hex codes, please) for consistency in future updates
• Revisit your choice at least yearly, or if you rebrand or redesign your site
• Keep an eye on competitors; if they surpass you with a new design, revisit your own assumptions

Step 6: Mind the Exceptions

Sometimes the usual guidelines don’t apply. Certain brands or specific campaigns benefit from wildcard choices (such as a charity’s “donate” button in purple or orange because research showed it worked best for their appeal).

Checklist:

• If you want to deviate, do it with a clear reason and always test the results with real users
• Don’t hesitate to try something radically different for a one-off campaign, but ensure you can justify it with evidence afterwards

What Most People Miss

One point often overlooked: colour is only part of the equation. The shape, size, text, and spacing of your CTA matter just as much, but colour is the simplest element to adjust and measure quickly.

You need to consider your users’ perspective; they see your site with fresh eyes. Don’t fall into “designer blindness”—just because you know the blue button is central because you spent hours tweaking it doesn’t mean users will care. They’ll click what grabs them first and feels right in the moment.

Another approach that sometimes works: creating deliberate contrast by making your CTA feel a touch out of place. This can pull more attention than brand-compliant harmony. Just avoid turning the whole page into a busy mix of clashing colours.

The Bigger Picture

When your CTA colour works, several things happen together:

• Higher conversion rates, so every visitor is more likely to stick, sign up, or buy
• Fewer arguments with stakeholders about “favourite” colours and greater focus on results
• Builds experience with testing, adapting, and documenting (skills useful beyond colour)

Most importantly: you can stop second-guessing every palette choice, confident that you’ve made decisions based on what actually works.

At Pixelhaze, we’ve seen clients turn around struggling landing pages simply by fixing the CTA contrast and running a small test. One recent e-commerce site saw a 27% bump in checkouts when the “Add to Basket” button was switched from a polite, almost apologetic grey to a defiantly cheerful blue. Yes, really.

Wrap-Up

After years in the trenches (and more client meetings than I care to count), my advice is the same: treat your CTA colour as a serious lever for results, not a trivial afterthought. Test, measure, and adapt. User behaviour will always change.

The next time you find yourself squinting at a sea of blue buttons, trying to decide between “Periwinkle” and “Azure Radiance”, focus on the details that drive results.

Takeaway Points:

• Colour is more than aesthetic; it affects conversions directly.
• Minor tweaks in shade, contrast, and placement can transform performance.
• Test your choices with real users and real data.
• Maintain consistency but revisit regularly, as what works now may not always deliver.
• Using both data and design intuition leads to the best outcomes.

Still overwhelmed by picking your next “winning” blue? You can learn practical approaches (and use our templates) inside Pixelhaze Academy. Join for free: https://www.pixelhaze.academy/membership

Now, if you’ll excuse me, my tea has gone cold and I can feel a few more blues calling my name.

FAQs & Jargon Buster

What’s a CTA again?
Your Call to Action is simply the button or link you want users to click—whether it’s “Sign Up”, “Buy Now”, or “Download”.

Does a tiny change in colour really matter?
Yes. Google’s team demonstrated that sometimes a one-degree shift is enough to nudge behaviour upwards.

Is there a universal CTA colour that works for everyone?
No. Context, brand, and user expectations are more important than any supposed “silver bullet.” Test in your environment.

What does ‘data-driven design’ mean here?
This refers to measuring what you change and letting actual results guide future choices.

Is it true a designer quit Google over this?
Yes. The “41 shades of blue” saga became infamous after Google’s lead designer left, criticizing what he felt was an obsession with data over human intuition. You can read about Douglas Bowman for more background.

How do I test button colours without fancy tools?
A/B tests are ideal, but even asking friends, colleagues, or clients for “first impression clicks” yields better insight than guessing.

Call to Action (CTA):
A prompt (usually a button) telling the user what to do next.

A/B Testing:
Running two or more versions at the same time to see which works best.

Contrast Ratio:
A measure of how much a colour stands out from its background. This is important for accessibility and aesthetics.

Want more practical systems like this? Join Pixelhaze Academy for free at https://www.pixelhaze.academy/membership.