Guide 5 · If your views aren’t American
Getting Americans to see your videos.
Your account came with followers from all over. That’s normal. Here’s how to move it, and how to tell it’s working.
30 minutes · then 2–3 weeks of postingWhy your followers aren’t American yet
Older accounts pick up followers from everywhere. Nothing has gone wrong and you haven’t been sold the wrong thing.
The important bit:
TikTok doesn’t decide who sees your videos based on who follows you. It decides based on where your phone looks like it is and what your videos look like.
Change those two things and your viewers change with them — usually within two to three weeks of posting every day.
The US audience work is already done for you. Have a look at Step 1 to confirm, then carry on posting as normal.
Check where your viewers actually are
Do this first. Most people guess instead of looking.
TikTok Studio → Analytics → Viewers
Scroll to the map. It shows the top countries your videos are reaching.
Note today’s US percentage somewhere, then check again in two weeks. That number going up is the only real proof any of this is working.
Don’t judge it on one day. Look at the last 28 days.
Make your phone look American
If you live in the US, skip this. You’re already done.
Everyone else needs a US SIM card and a VPN set to America. That’s the single biggest signal TikTok uses, and nothing else on this page will work without it.
Full steps are in the International Setup guide.
Switching between VPNs, or letting one drop and reconnect somewhere else, makes your account look like it’s hopping between countries. TikTok treats that as suspicious.
Turn on the setting that keeps it always connected, and leave it alone.
Set your language to US English
This takes a minute and most people never do it.
Settings and privacy → Content preferences → Language
- Set your app language to English
- Set your content language to English as well
- Remove any other language that’s in the list
Tap Save and restart. TikTok will close and reopen itself — that’s meant to happen.
Write and talk like an American
TikTok reads your captions and listens to your voice. Both tell it where you are.
| Don’t write | Write |
|---|---|
| colour, favourite, realise | color, favorite, realize |
| trousers, rubbish, mate | pants, trash, dude |
| £20, 20 quid | $20 |
- Don’t use slang from your own country
- Don’t caption in two languages
- If you speak on camera, plain clear English travels best
Feed the app American content
This is the step almost everyone skips, and it’s the fastest one.
What you watch teaches TikTok who you are. Before you post anything, spend 10 to 15 minutes scrolling.
- Watch American videos all the way to the end
- Like a few, leave the odd comment
- Follow American creators in whatever you’re selling
- Search for American things — the search bar counts too
- Don’t skip past US videos in two seconds. That tells it the opposite
Do this every day for the first couple of weeks. It works faster than anything else here.
Use American sounds and hashtags
Sounds carry a country with them. A sound that’s trending in your country will pull your video straight back there.
To find what Americans are actually searching for: type
Creator Search Insights into the TikTok search bar. It’s a free
TikTok tool that shows you what people are looking for right now.
- Use sounds that are trending in the US
- Three to five hashtags, all relevant to the video
- Never use country tags like #ukfyp, #indiareels, #phfyp
- Don’t put a foreign sound on a video with US hashtags
Don’t send mixed signals
The fastest way to confuse TikTok is to be American in one place and not in another. It notices, and it stops trusting the signal.
- A US hashtag on a video using a sound from another country
- More than one VPN, or a VPN that keeps reconnecting somewhere new
- A location tag from where you actually live
- Switching your language settings back and forth
- Posting in English one day and your own language the next
Pick American, and be consistent about it.
What to expect, and when
| When | What you should see |
|---|---|
| Days 1–3 | Nothing much. Views may even dip. Keep going. |
| Week 1 | US percentage starts moving in your analytics. |
| Weeks 2–3 | Most of your views should be American. |
Post once or twice a day, every day. Consistency matters more than how good any single video is.
Open a ticket and tell us what your analytics say. Don’t keep changing things — that usually makes it worse.
Quick answers
My followers are still not American. Is the account broken?
No. Your existing followers won’t change country — they are who they are. What changes is who TikTok shows your new videos to. Watch the viewer numbers, not the follower list.
Should I delete my old videos?
Hide them rather than delete them, and no more than 50 at a time. Deleting a lot at once makes TikTok suspicious.
Do I need to pay for a VPN?
Yes, and get one with a dedicated IP if you can. Free VPNs put thousands of people on the same address, which TikTok spots easily.
Can I just buy US followers?
No. Bought followers don’t watch anything, and an account with followers who never engage gets pushed down, not up.
How many videos a day?
One or two. Up to 10 is allowed, but more than that and TikTok thinks a robot is running the account. Never more than one an hour.