For corporations and agencies of state, advocacy can be conducted inside an organisation to engage and influence employees.

Externally, most corporations and industry associations advocate to engage and influence stakeholders that have an impact or potential impact on their operating environment, and on issues and policy important to interests it shares with their stakeholders.

Depending on the issue or context, advocacy occurs either discreetly ‘behind closed doors’ and away from the public square; or in the public square, as part of a strategy to generate interest from multiple stakeholders, and to garner board support to influence a policy, regulation, law, or behaviour.

Governments and their agencies most frequently engage in public advocacy to either win support for a policy proposal or option, a decision or course of action, or for the purposes of public awareness or education.

The motivations for interest groups, including not-for-profit advocacy entities, to engage in advocacy are the same as for corporations and governments. Frequently, an interest group may have a different view and preferred outcome than a corporation or government.

Good practice public advocacy is characterised by identifying and framing an issue, collating an evidence base for discourse and engagement with stakeholders, identifying allies and/or a coalition to participate in the advocacy (more, diverse voices), choosing arena in which the advocacy will occur (news media, social media, private channels and forums, legislatures, community meetings, legal forums).

To secure or make progress towards a preferred outcome, public advocacy is often conducted within the boundaries of an advocacy campaign, harnessing numerous channels and voices within a defined timeframe to maximise the impact of advocacy activity.

The 2019 -2020 State of Public Affairs in Australia found about 12 per cent of corporate public affairs budgets in large organisations are allocated to developing and managing advocacy campaigns. The Centre estimates this budget allocation is up to 20 per cent in many corporations and industry associations in the US, up to 10 per cent in many economies in Asia (sans China, Hong Kong, North Korea, and Singapore), and about the same in Europe.