That really stinks you had to revert back to manual entry just to keep your conversion tracking working, but you're spot-on that the Jobber form breaks the easy 'thank you page URL' method.
The good news is that what you are describing is a classic case for server-side tracking, which offers a superior, more robust solution, even if it is a bit more complex to set up initially.
The combination of tools you mentioned creates an excellent, privacy-resilient tracking pipeline that moves conversion data directly from Jobber back to Google Ads, bypassing the limitations of browser-side tracking.
The core problem is that the Jobber lead form either uses an iframe, an AJAX submission, or is on a sub-domain, all of which prevent your site's Google Tag Manager (GTM) from easily detecting the submission and sending the standard Google Ads conversion tag.
The solution is to use the Jobber API to capture the lead information on the server-side as soon as it hits their CRM.
Crucially, Jobber is very good at capturing UTM parameters (source, medium, etc.) and it also captures the Google Click ID (GCLID) if you've correctly appended those to your ad URLs, which is vital for connecting the lead to the ad click.
Once the lead hits Jobber, the Jobber API can be used to pull this new lead data, including the GCLID, email, phone number, and a timestamp.
From there, you use a service like Stape (which acts as a server-side GTM container) or Google Cloud Platform to process this data.
Your server-side container, which is running the Google Tag Manager functionality, takes the GCLID and the Standard Events data and sends an Offline Conversion event directly to the Google Ads API.
This server-to-server connection is the most reliable way to attribute the conversion because it doesn't rely on the user's browser or cookies.
Finally, the Google Analytics Data API is the piece that lets you pull rich, high-quality session and user data from your Google Analytics 4 property that might also have captured the original lead submission event (e.g., `generate_lead`).
This is essential for a holistic view of the customer journey, providing a deeper understanding of the conversion path beyond what Google Ads alone can see.
Using all these APIs together creates a "full-funnel" picture, ensuring you get accurate, de-duplicated conversion data into Google Ads for proper reporting and bid optimization, all while keeping your leads flowing automatically into Jobber.
You get the benefit of the CRM and accurate ad tracking.
