the absorption of visible wavelengths always involves promotion of electron from one energy level to another fairly close level. however, to explaint the factor of making the compund colour is absolutely related to the ligand. ligand is the molecules or ions that "attached" to the metal ion. The effect of the ligands is to split the d-level into two or more energy levels.
For more explore about this concepts, explore this website:
http://lawrencekok.blogspot.com/2011/11/ib-chemistry-uv-visible-spectroscopy.html