PPC stands for Pay Per Click. Recently, many search engines are offering PPC programs. The bids usually starts from 5 cents. Some important PPC search engines are:

Google - Google started PPC through adwords program. Minimum bid is 5 cents. These ads are displays on the right side of the search results. Note that the search results are not influenced by the adwords, and remain merit based.

Overture - Overture was an early entrant to PPC. Recently, Overture has increased the minimum PPC bit to 10 cents. Overture closely competes with Google adwords in PPC search results.

FindWhat.com - This is another PPC search engine that offers bid amounts as small as 1 cent. However, it is claimed that Overture and Google adwords offer better conversion rates compared to FindWhat.com.

Other important PPC are espotting (UK), and Overture UK.

The decision to go in for PPC advertising should be based on the return on investment, and this factor varies from business to business. The cost of acquiring a customer needs to be studied before going in for PPC advertising.